Blue crater on the Martian surface wows astronomers

A stunning blue crater has been discovered on the surface of Mars.

在火星表面发现了一个惊人的蓝色陨石坑。

The 16m-wide pockmark was photographed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in April, using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.

今年4月，美国宇航局的火星勘测轨道飞行器，用高分辨率成像科学实验(HiRISE)相机拍摄到了这个16米宽的陨石坑。

The stunning image shows streaks of grey exploding from the impact site, one side glowing blue.

这张令人震惊的照片显示，从撞击地点爆炸所显示的灰色条纹中，有一边闪耀着蓝色。

(Photo credit: NASA)

"That has not yet been confirmed, but commonly, when a HiRISE image of a new impact shows a blue area, it is sometimes water ice," HiRISE team member Veronica Bray told CNN.

“虽然还没有得到证实，但通常情况下，HiRISE拍摄的撞击图像显示出蓝色区域时，有时是冰块，”Hirise团队成员Veronica Bray告诉CNN。

It's not clear when the crater was formed. The orbiter can't cover the whole planet at once, so NASA's best estimate is it was formed somewhere between September 2016 and February 2019, by a meteorite about 1.5m across.

目前还不清楚该陨石坑是何时形成的。这颗人造卫星无法同时检测整个火星，所以美国宇航局给出的的最佳估计是，它是在2016年9月至2019年2月之间的某个地方，由一颗直径约1.5米的陨石形成的。

A rock that size wouldn't have made it to Earth's surface, burning up in our much thicker atmosphere.

这个体积的岩石不太可能到达地球表面，因为它会在地球厚厚的大气层中燃烧殆尽。

"It's a gorgeous [crater]," Bray told space.com.

布雷向space.com表示，“这是一个美丽的陨石坑。”

Whether it's ice or not will be hard to determine, as the instrument onboard that measures that kind of thing is well past its use-by date. The orbiter was launched in 2005, and only expected to function for two years once in orbit around Mars.

由于卫星上用来测量这种物质的仪器早已过时，所以是不是冰将很难确定。这颗人造卫星于2005年发射，当时的预期只是进入火星轨道运行两年。

NASA's next Mars mission, tentatively titled Mars 2020, is expected to include a drone that will launch from the space /agency's next rover.

美国宇航局的下一个火星任务，暂定名为“火星2020”，预计从航天局的下一个探测器发射出来的会有一架无人机。