Astronomers have found patches of frost scattered around the moon’s north and south poles which could one day provide a source of water for human visitors.
天文学家发现，一片片冰霜区零散散布在月球的北极和南极周边。将来，它们能够为人类访客供给水源。
The scientists spotted the telltale signature of frozen water in infrared measurements taken by Nasa’s moon mineralogy mapper, an instrument that flew on India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission to the moon a decade ago.
科学家们在美国航天局的月球矿藏绘图仪获得的红外丈量成果中发现了这些冰冻水的痕迹。这个月球矿藏绘图仪于10年前搭乘印度的“月船1号”勘探器飞抵月球。
The freshly-analysed data show that water ice lurks on the ground in a number of spots near the moon’s polar regions that are permanently in shade and so sheltered from the heat of the sun’s rays.
对有关数据的最新剖析显现，月球南北极区域邻近的大都地表散布着水冰。月球的南北极区域终年处于阴私自，终年不见阳光。
Most of the ice was found near the moon’s south pole around a cluster of craters named after scientists and explorers, including Haworth, Shoemaker, Sverdrup and Shackleton. In the north, the patches of ice appeared to be more isolated, according to Shuai Li at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology in Honolulu.
大部分的冰是在月球南极邻近一系列环形山的周边发现的。这些环形山都以科学家和探险家的姓名命名，包含霍沃思、休梅克、斯韦德鲁普和沙克尔顿。夏威夷檀香山地球物理与行星学研究所的李帅（音）说，月球北极的水冰好像涣散一些。
Follow-up measurements of the ice patches found that they tended to form where the surface temperature never crept above -163C, but temperature alone was not enough to guarantee frozen water: only 3.5% of the shadowy areas the scientists checked for water revealed notable signs of ice.
对这些冰霜区的后续丈量发现，在外表气温从不超越零下163摄氏度的当地最或许构成冰。但温度自身不足以确保呈现冰冻的水：科学家勘探水源通过的昏暗区域中只要3.5%的区域显现出显着的水冰痕迹。
The images are the first “direct and definitive evidence” of water ice that is exposed on the surface of the moon, according to a report in the?Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “These ice deposits might be utilised as an in-situ resource in future exploration of the moon,” the authors write.
美国《国家科学院学报》期刊宣布的一篇陈述说，这些图片是月球外表存在水冰的首个“直接和清晰依据”。作者们写道：“在未来的探月活动中，这些冰或许能作为一种当地资源加以使用。”
The Indian Space Agency launched its Chandrayaan-1 mission to the moon in 2008 and was swiftly rewarded with evidence of frozen water on the lunar surface a year later. Rather than sheets of ice on the surface, the water is thought to exist as water molecules bound to grains of moon dust.
印度航天局2008年发射了“月船1号”探月器。一年后，该探月器就找到了月球外表存在冰冻水的依据。人们认为，月球上的水以水分子的方式存在，它们同月球尘埃结合在一起，而不是以月球外表的冰层方式存在。
Soon after the Indian feat, Nasa crashed a spacecraft into the 100km-wide Cabeus crater which is in permanent shade on the moon’s south pole. The intentional act of lunar violence threw up a plume of debris from which scientists were able to confirm the presence of water on the moon.
印度的这项发现之后不久，美国航天局将一个航天器撞向坐落月球南极永久阴影区、直径100公里的卡贝乌斯环形山。这次有意为之的碰击扬起了许多碎屑，科学家们由此才干承认月球上水的存在。
