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If you believe in Martians, the next story is definitely for you.
如果你相信火星人，下面這則新聞你肯定要看。

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NASA's space rover Curiosity has literally scooped up what scientists say are the ingredients of life from the Red Planet.
美國太空總署的太空探測車好奇號已經真正鏟起了科學家認為是火星生物構成成分的東西。

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John Zarrella has more from Miami.
約翰．札瑞拉從邁阿密帶來進一步報導。

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NASA scientists are certainly very, very excited this evening.
太空總署的科學家今天晚上肯定非常、非常興奮。

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You know, back when they chose the landing site for Curiosity, the Gale Crater, they chose it for a reason.
回到當初他們選擇蓋爾隕石坑作為好奇號的降落地點時，他們選擇那裡是有原因的。

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They believed that water once flowed in that area of Mars.
他們認為水曾經流經火星的那塊區域。

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And very early on in the Curiosity mission, they proved that, in fact, there was a dried-out river bed there, and in fact that one time water did flow in that area of Mars.
在好奇號任務很早的時候，他們就證明了事實上那裡曾經有座乾枯的河床，而且水確實曾流經火星的那塊區域。

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And they believe because of that, there was a chance that the ingredients for life might very well be found in that river bed in the Gale Crater.
他們相信，正因為如此，很有可能在蓋爾隕石坑的河床上發現生命的元素。

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And, in fact, they proved today that they're right.
事實上，他們今天證明了他們是對的。

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Mars has written the autobiography -- its autobiography in the rocks of Gale Crater. And we've just started deciphering that story.
火星寫下了自傳，它的自傳就是寫在蓋爾隕石坑的石頭上。我們才剛開始解讀那則故事。

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So, Chapter 1, Yellowknife Bay. This was an ancient environment with the right elements --
那麼，第一章，黃刀灣。這裡的環境很古老，有著正確的成分－－

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minerals indicating a near neutral environment and slightly salty liquid water -- all the prerequisites to support life, a habitable environment.
顯示環境接近中性的礦物及略帶鹽份的液態水－－支持生命的全部要件，是個可以居住的環境。

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What they did was last month they drilled into a rock. It was the first time that they used Curiosity's drill to drill into a rock.
上個月他們在一個岩塊上鑽孔，這是他們第一次用好奇號的鑽頭去鑽石頭，

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And then the dust was collected from the drill, scooped it up and put it in the onboard chemistry lab on Curiosity.
然後收集鑽洞過程中產生的塵土，鏟起來，把它放在好奇號上的化學實驗室裡。

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First time any Mars vehicle has had that capability to do that.
這是所有的火星載具第一次有能力這麼做。

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So they put that in the onboard chemistry lab. They analyzed it.
所以他們把塵土放進車上的實驗室中，然後加以分析。

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And lo and behold, they find out that there's all of this life soup, these ingredients in this sample, things like sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide.
一看不得了，他們發現那裡有所有構成生命的元素，這個樣本裡的成分有像是硫、氮、氧、二氧化碳的東西。

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Now, they have not proven that life existed on Mars -- that's still perhaps down the road.
現在他們尚未證明火星上曾經有過生命，這可能是未來要做的事。

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And certainly they did not find evidence of life on Mars, but what they did find was evidence that,
他們當然並未在火星上發現生命存在的證據，但是他們確實發現的證據是，

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in fact, the ingredients for life were at one time in Mars's ancient history present, at least in this spot on Mars.
事實上，生命要素一度存在於火星古老的歷史中，至少在火星上的這個地點是如此。