NASA新消息：若有外星人，最可能在这里_时事

NASA新消息：若有外星人，最可能在这里

美国宇航局13日宣布了土星探测器卡西尼号和哈勃望远镜的发现，为土星第六大卫星“土卫二”和木星第四大卫星“木卫二”存在地球以外生命迹象提供了最新证据。研究人员认为，土卫二几乎具备所有存在外星生命的已知要件。

Saturn's icy moon Enceladus could theoretically be home to methane-producing alien life, NASA said Thursday.

美国宇航局 Researchers made the announcement based on data from 2017, when the spacecraft Cassini detected the presence of hydrogen during a flyby through a plume of gas and ice erupting from Enceladus' south pole. The hydrogen, which is escaping into space from a hydrothermal vent on the moon's seafloor, could be a sign of methanogenesis, a form of anaerobic respiration in which microbes produce methane.

2017年，土星探测器卡西尼号在飞过土卫二南极区域喷射的一股气流和冰物质时，发现了氢气的存在。研究人员基于当时的数据宣布了该消息。氢气是从土卫二海床的热液喷口飘入太空的。这可能是产甲烷反应的标志。产甲烷反应是微生物进行无氧呼吸时产生甲烷的过程。

"This is a very significant finding because the hydrogen could be a potential source of chemical energy for any microbes that might be in Enceladus' ocean," Linda Spilker, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Thursday at a press conference.