'Man in Moon' 4 Billion Years Old
| The plains of solidified lava that give the moon its quirky human-like face were created more than 4 billion years ago, a new study says. | 一項(xiàng)新研究顯示：凝固的熔巖形成平原，使月球看起來象張離奇的人臉，這些平原形成于40多億年以前。 | |
| The evidence comes from an unearthly silvery-grey stone that was blasted off from the face of the moon, perhaps by an impacting asteroid, and was then captured by earth's gravity, prompting it to fall to ground in Botswana. | 證據(jù)來自于一塊神秘的銀灰色巖石，該巖石可能是由于跟一塊小行星碰撞而脫離月球表面的，后來被地球的引力捕獲，墜落在博茨瓦納的地面上。不久前，一個(gè)跨國(guó)研究小組將他們的研究成果發(fā)表在《自然》（Nature）雜志上。 | |
| In 1999, local people near the village of Kuke, in the grasslands of the Kalahari Nature Reserve, found the 13.5 kilogram remnant of this roving rock. They then sold it to meteorite hunters. | 1999年，庫(kù)克（Kuke）村附近的當(dāng)?shù)厝藗冊(cè)?/span>喀拉哈里自然保護(hù)區(qū)的草地上發(fā)現(xiàn)了這塊13.5公斤的質(zhì)地粗糙的殘余隕石，后來賣給了隕石搜尋人員。 | |
| Scientists have since confirmed that the rock, named Kalahari 009, came from the moon.They found the telltale signature of oxygen isotopes plus the ratio of iron to manganese in two volcanic minerals, olivine and pyroxene.The nature of these chemicals puts the rock into the category of a mare basalt. | 從那以后，研究人員證實(shí)了這塊叫做“喀拉哈里009”的隕石來自月球，他們通過氧同位素以及兩種火山礦物——橄欖石和輝石中的鐵與猛的比例，發(fā)現(xiàn)了證據(jù)。這些化學(xué)物質(zhì)證明該隕石屬于月海玄武巖類巖石。 | |
| This is lava that flowed out smoothly onto the lunar surface before solidifying, forming dark plains that early skywatchers mistakenly took for seas (mare in Latin). | 熔巖流在凝固之前順利地流到月球表面上，形成了顏色暗淡的平原，早期的天空觀察者誤以為是月球上的海洋（“?！痹诶≌Z(yǔ)中是mare），稱其為月海。 | |
| A new analysis of fragments of phosphate in Kalahari 009 puts the rocks at the whopping old age of 4.35 billion years, give or take 150 million years, the study says. | 研究人員稱，對(duì)“喀拉哈里009”中磷酸鹽碎片的一項(xiàng)最新分析證明，月海玄武巖類巖石極其古老，形成于43.5億年前，誤差為1.5億年。 | |
| This suggests that mare-type volcanism must have occurred at least as early as this date, just after the first stage of lunar crust formation, say the authors, led by Dr Kentaro Terada of Hiroshima University in Japan and Dr Mahesh Anand of the UK's Open University. | 研究的發(fā)起人日本廣島大學(xué)的Kentaro Terada博士和英國(guó)開放大學(xué)的Dr Mahesh Anand指出：這肯定地說明了，形成月海的火山作用起碼不比這個(gè)時(shí)間更晚，就發(fā)生在月球外殼形成的第一階段之后。 | |
| Mare volcanism overlapped with a later stage of volcanism, evidence of which was found in rocks picked up by the Apollo missions. | 月?；鹕阶饔酶笃诘幕鹕阶饔冒l(fā)生交迭，從阿波羅航天任務(wù)所采集的巖石中已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)了證據(jù)，證實(shí)了這一點(diǎn)。 | |
| The 'man in the moon' comprises eyes made of the Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis, a nose consisting of Sinus Aestuum, while the Mare Nubium and Mare Cognitum provide its mouth. | “月中人”的眼睛由“雨海（Mare Imbrium）”和“澄海（Mare Serenitatis）”個(gè)構(gòu)成；鼻子由“暑灣(Sinus Aestuum)”構(gòu)成；而嘴巴是由“云海(Mare Nubium)”和“知海(Mare Cognitum)”構(gòu)成的。 | |
| These and other mare account for nearly a sixth of the lunar surface, mostly on the side visible from earth. | 上述各“?！焙推渌昂Ｓ颉闭紦?jù)了月球的六分之一，主要位于朝向地球的一面。 |
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