NASA scientists identified a molecule in Titan’s atmosphere that has never been detected in any other atmosphere. In fact, many chemists have probably barely heard of it or know how to pronounce it: cyclopropenylidene, or C3H2. Scientists say that this simple carbon-based molecule may be a precursor to more complex compounds that could form or feed possible life on Titan.
在土泰坦星大中，美航太署(NASA)科家了一，在任何其他大中，不曾被的分子。上，很多化家可能乎不曾到，或知道如何音cyclopropenylidene(也就是C3H2，丙烯)。科家表示，的碳基分子，或是一能在泰坦星上，形成或持可能之生命，更化合物的先物。
1. 是2005年1月14日，由洲太空署，惠更斯探器，在成功降落到泰坦星表面期，返回的照片。
Researchers found C3H2 by using a radio telescope observatory in northern Chile known as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). They noticed C3H2, which is made of carbon and hydrogen, while sifting through a spectrum of unique light signatures collected by the telescope; these revealed the chemical makeup of Titan’s atmosphere by the energy its molecules emitted or absorbed.
藉由使用位於智利北部，被通阿塔卡大型毫米/次毫米列(ALMA)的射望天文台，研究人了C3H2。透，由此望收集之多特光特徵的光行，他注意到由碳及成的C3H2。些特徵揭露了泰坦星大，由其分子出或吸收之能量的化成。
“When I realied I was looking at cyclopropenylidene, my first thought was, ‘Well, this is really unexpected,’” said Conor Nixon, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who led the ALMA search. His team’s findings were published on October 15 in the Astronomical Journal.
美航太署所戈德太空行中心(位於里州格林特市)ALMA搜的行星科家，Conor Nixon宣：「他意到，的是丙烯，首先想到的是‘哎呀，真的意想不到’。」 其的研究，表於2020年10月15日，由美天文行的《天文》。
Though scientists have found C3H2 in pockets throughout the galaxy, finding it in an atmosphere was a surprise. That’s because cyclopropenylidene can react easily with other molecules it comes into contact with and form different species. Astronomers have so far found C3H2 only in clouds of gas and dust that float between star systems — in other words, regions too cold and diffuse to facilitate many chemical reactions.
然科家，在整河系的多小地中，曾C3H2。不在一大中，它是一件令人的事。那是因丙烯易，其接的其他分子反，形成不同的分子。迄今，天文家只在，漂浮於星系之的及埃中，曾C3H2。句，太冷及太散的域，法助多化反。
But dense atmospheres like Titan’s are hives of chemical activity. That’s a major reason scientists are interested in this moon, which is the destination of NASA’s forthcoming Dragonfly mission.
不，像泰坦星稠密的大，是化活的所。那是科家，此星感趣的主要原因。此星是美航太署，即行之蜻蜓航天器任的目的地。
Nixon’s team was able to identify small amounts of C3H2 at Titan likely because they were looking in the upper layers of the moon’s atmosphere, where there are fewer other gases for C3H2 to interact with.
Nixon的能，於泰坦星的少量C3H2。可能是因，他的是此星，有少其他C3H2交互作用的上大。
Scientists don’t yet know why cyclopropenylidene would show up in Titan’s atmosphere but no other atmosphere. “Titan is unique in our solar system,” Nixon said. “It has proved to be a treasure trove of new molecules.”
科家尚不知，何丙烯出於泰坦星大中，其他大有。Nixon宣：「於咱太系中，泰坦星是一二的。它已明是新分子的一。」
The largest of Saturn’s 62 moons, Titan is an intriguing world that’s in some ways the most similar one to Earth we have found. Unlike any other moon in the solar system — there are more than 200 — Titan has a thick atmosphere that’s four times denser than Earth’s, plus clouds, rain, lakes and rivers, and even a subsurface ocean of salty water.
土星62星中最大的泰坦星，在某些方面，是一咱已，最似地球之引人好奇的天。不像在有200多星之太系中的任何其他星，泰坦星除了、雨、湖泊及河流之外，也具有比地球更稠密四倍的稠大，及甚至一水的地表下海洋。
Titan’s atmosphere is made mostly of nitrogen, like Earth’s, with a hint of methane. When methane and nitrogen molecules break apart under the glare of the Sun, their component atoms unleash a complex web of organic chemistry that has captivated scientists and thrust this moon to the top of the list of the most important targets in NASA’s search for present or past life in the solar system.
泰坦星的大主要由氮成，如同地球大，有少的甲烷。在太的光下，甲烷及氮分子分解，它的成原子激出一，具有吸引科家此星推上，在NASA找太系在或去生命上，最重要之目一表端的有化交物。
“We’re trying to figure out if Titan is habitable,” said Rosaly Lopes, a senior research scientist and Titan expert at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) i Pasadena, California. “So we want to know what compounds from the atmosphere get to the surface, and then, whether that material can get through the ice crust to the ocean below, because we think the ocean is where the habitable conditions are.”
美航太署所射推室(JPL，位於加州帕迪市)的深研究科家及泰坦星家，Rosaly Lopes宣：「她正，泰坦星是否於居住。因此，想知什化合物，大到地表。之後，那物是否能穿冰，到下面的海洋。因，她海洋是宜居住的境所在。」
The types of molecules that might be sitting on Titan’s surface could be the same ones that formed the building blocks of life on Earth. Early in its history, 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago, when methane filled Earth’s air instead of oxygen, conditions here could have been similar to those on Titan today, scientists suspect.
可能落到泰坦星地表上的分子型，或是形成地球之生命材的相同型分子。科家疑，在38到25年前的地球史早期，地球的空充斥著甲烷，而不是氧。此可能一直似今泰坦星上的。
“We think of Titan as a real-life laboratory where we can see similar chemistry to that of ancient Earth when life was taking hold here,” said Melissa Trainer, a NASA Goddard astrobiologist. Trainer is the Dragonfly mission’s deputy principal investigator and lead of an instrument on the Dragonfly rotorcraft that will analyze the composition of Titan’s surface.
美航太署所戈德太空行中心的天生物家，Melissa Trainer宣：「她泰坦星是一，能生命在古地球上生根，相似之化物的真生命室。」Trainer是蜻蜓航天器任的副首席查研究，及分析泰坦星地表成分之蜻蜓旋翼上的器引人。
“We’ll be looking for bigger molecules than C3H2,” Trainer said, “but we need to know what’s happening in the atmosphere to understand the chemical reactions that lead complex organic molecules to form and rain down to the surface.
Trainer宣：「她找比C3H2大的分子。不，需要知大中生了什，以理解致形成落到地表之有分子的化反。」
Cyclopropenylidene is the only other “cyclic,” or closed-loop, molecule besides benzene to have been found in Titan’s atmosphere so far. Although C3H2 is not known to be used in modern-day biological reactions, closed-loop molecules like it are important because they form the backbone rings for the nucleobases of DNA, the complex chemical structure that carries the genetic code of life, and RNA, another critical compound for life’s functions.
迄今，在泰坦大中，除了已被的苯之外，丙烯是唯另一“”(也就是)分子。然C3H2被用於代生物反中，非人所熟知的事。不，像它的分子是重要的。因，它形成具有生命密之化的DNA，及生命能另一化合物，RNA的核基骨架。
“The cyclic nature of them opens up this extra branch of chemistry that allows you to build these biologically important molecules,” said Alexander Thelen, a Goddard astrobiologist who worked with Nixon to find C3H2.
戈德太空行中心Nixon行找C3H2之研究的天生物家，Alexander Thelen宣：「它的特了，使得人得以建，上述生物上重要分子的外化分支。」
Scientists like Thelen and Nixon are using large and highly sensitive Earth-based telescopes to look for the simplest life-related carbon molecules they can find in Titan’s atmosphere. Benzene was considered to be the smallest unit of complex, ringed hydrocarbon molecules found in any planetary atmosphere. But now, C3H2 with half the carbon atoms of benzene, appears to have taken its place.
像Thelen及Nixon的科家正使用，大型且高度敏的基望找，於泰坦星大中，能找到之生命相的最碳分子。苯被是，在任何行星大中，被之、碳化合物分子的最小元。不目前，具有苯半碳原子的C3H2，然已取代它。
Nixon's team used the ALMA observatory to peer at Titan in 2016. They were surprised to find a strange chemical fingerprint, which Nixon identified as cyclopropenylidene by searching through a database of all known molecular light signatures.
在2016年，Nixon的使用了ALMA天文台，凝泰坦星。他感到，了一，Nixon藉由搜所有已知分子光特徵的，丙烯的怪化特徵。
2. 迄今，丙烯在，如金牛座分子(在400多光年外之金牛座中的星育)的及埃分子中，已被。最近，美航太署戈德太空行中心，科家Conor Nixon及其，在泰坦大中，了特的分子。
To double check that the researchers were actually seeing this unusual compound, Nixon pored through research papers published from analyses of data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which made 127 close flybys of Titan between 2004 and 2017.
了重，此些研究人，不常的化合物。Nixon研了，根自NASA卡西尼航天器，在2004到2017年，行127次靠近泰坦星之近距探行的分析，表的多篇研究文。
He wanted to see if an instrument on the spacecraft that sniffed out the chemical compounds around Saturn and Titan could confirm his new result. (The instrument – called a mass spectrometer – picked up hints of many mysterious molecules at Titan that scientists are still trying to identify.) Indeed, Cassini had spotted evidence for an electrically charged version of the same molecule, C3H3+.
他想解，在此航天器上，察出土星及泰坦星周遭化物的器(被的器收集了，科家仍之泰坦星多神秘的分子)，能否他的新研究果。上，卡西尼已一，版本之相同分子C3H3+的。
Given that it’s a rare find, scientists are trying to learn more about cyclopropenylidene and how it might interact with gases in Titan’s atmosphere.
於是一罕的，科家正悉更多有丙烯，及其如何能泰坦星大中的交互作用。
“It’s a very weird little molecule, so it’s not going be the kind you learn about in high school chemistry or even undergraduate chemistry,” said Michael Malaska, a JPL planetary scientist who worked in the pharmaceutical industry before falling in love with Titan and switching careers to study it. “Down here on Earth, it’s not going be something you’re going to encounter.”
在迷上行研究泰坦星之前，事工作的射推室行星科家，Michael Malaska宣：「是一非常怪的小分子，因此不是於高中，或甚至大本科化中，的那分子。」
But, Malaska said, finding molecules like C3H2 is really important in seeing the big picture of Titan: “Every little piece and part you can discover can help you put together the huge puzzle of all the things going on there.”
不，Malaska表示，在解泰坦星的主要上，找像C3H2的分子重要：「能的每一小片段及部分皆能有助於，拼出在那生之所有事物的巨大。」
原文址：https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-scientists-discover-a-weird-molecule-in-titan-s-atmosphere/
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