火星極地冰蓋正融化

Huge sections of the ice around the south pole of Mars are melting in this summer's warm weather.
　　在這個夏日炎熱的天氣裏，火星南極周圍的巨大冰面正融化。

The ice cap - made of solid carbon dioxide at temperatures as low as -143 - 'boils' every summer (or, more correctly, 'sublimates' directly from solid form to gas), leaving huge pits in the Martian polar ice.

低至零下142度的氣溫下，由固體二氧化碳形成的冰冠每個夏天都會“沸騰”（或者更準確地說是從固體直接“昇華”成氣體），並在火星的極地冰裏留下巨大的凹點。

The 'gold' pits isn't likely to be ferried back to Earth, though - scientists remain unsure of the chemical composition of the yelllow, shimmering dust that lines the pit walls every 'summer'.

可是那些在凹點的金線不太可能被帶回地球，所以科學家還不能確定這在每個“夏天”都在凹點排成線而且發光的黃色灰塵的化學成分。

Martian summers are rather chilly in comparison to our own - the temperature usually remains below zero degrees centigrade. It's still 'warm' enough, relatively speaking, to make the 'dry ice' of the polar ice caps boil off.

火星的夏天跟我們的相比非常寒冷，氣溫通常保持在零攝氏度以下。相對將極地的冰冠氣化成“乾冰”，這樣的溫度仍然足夠“溫暖了”。

Part of the fascination of Mars for both scientists and writers has always been how similar the planet's weather is to ours - with seasons, currents, and polar ice caps. Mars has no surface water, however.

科學家和作家都對火星着迷的部分是，火星的氣候、季節、氣流和極地冰冠和地球非常相似但是不同的是，火星表面沒有水。

Scientists often study Mars's weather in the hope of better understanding our own. There have also been academic studies into the feasibility of 'mining' Mars for precious metals - but the academics concluded glumly that it was unlikely we would ever find enough to make it worth the trip.

科學家們經常研究火星的天氣，希望可以更好地理解地球的天氣。也有一些探討在火星開採貴金屬可行性的學術報告，然而學術結論是令人鬱悶的，因爲採得的數量還不夠我們往返的路費。

The picture here was taken by HiRise - the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, one of the largest telescopes in deep space. It is mapping the surface of Mars from an altitude of 300km from the safety of the Mars Orbiter - and has even taken 3D pictures of the surface of the planet.

這張照片是由HiRise（最大的外太空望遠鏡之一）的高分辨率成像科學實驗拍攝的。它從高度300km的火星人造衛星上繪製出火星表面的圖像，它曾經還繪製出這個星球表面的3D圖片。