Saturn’s ’Death Star’ moon has a hidden secret - a subsurface ocean土星的「死星」衛星有個不為人知的秘密－地下海洋 @ 【精英翻譯】的部落格

精英翻譯轉自https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1631163

◎林家宇

Saturn’s moon Mimas is known for its uncanny resemblance to the dreaded Death Star in the original "Star Wars" movie. But it has another intriguing distinction as well, according to researchers - a subsurface ocean hidden under its icy and crater-scarred outer shell.

土星衛星「彌瑪斯」因與初始「星際大戰」電影中令人聞之色變的「死星」奇異地相似而聞名。但根據研究員說法，彌瑪斯有另一個令人感興趣的特點，那就是隱藏在其冰層和滿目瘡夷表殼之下的海洋。

Mimas becomes the smallest of five moons in our solar system with compelling evidence of subsurface oceans, alongside Saturn’s Enceladus and Titan, and Jupiter’s Europa and Ganymede.

彌瑪斯成為太陽系中五個具有地下海洋有力證據衛星中最小的一個。其他為土星的恩克拉多斯和泰坦，木星的歐羅巴和蓋尼米德。

Mimas is the seventh-largest moon of Saturn, which all told has well over 100 moons ranging from Titan - larger than the planet Mercury - to some only the size of a city block.

彌瑪斯是土星第七大衛星。土星衛星數目超過100個，尺寸從比水星更大的泰坦，到部分僅有一個城市街區的大小。

The liquid water inside Mimas represents more than half of this moon’s total volume, though it amounts to just 1.2-1.4% the amount in Earth’s oceans. The fact that the water is in contact with the rocky core of Mimas may facilitate the type of complex chemistry that could pave the way for life, they added.

彌瑪斯內部的液態水相當於其總體積的一半以上，不過這僅是地球海洋比例的1.2至1.4％。科學家補充說，水與彌瑪斯的岩石核心交互作用之下，或許會催生複雜的化學反應型態，為生命鋪平道路。