Salty water just below the surface of Mars could hold enough oxygen to support the kind of microbial life that emerged and flourished on Earth billions of years ago, researchers reported last Monday.

研究人员上周一报告称，火星地表下的盐水可能蕴含着能够维持微生物生命的充足氧气，而这些微生物曾在十亿年前在地球上繁衍生存。

In some locations, the amount of oxygen available could even keep alive a primitive¹, multicellular animal such as a sponge, they reported in the journal Nature Geosciences.

据研究人员发表在《自然地球科学》杂志上的报告，在某些地方，氧气含量甚至高达可维持原始多细胞的生物的生命的水平，如海绵动物。

"We discovered that brines -- water with high concentrations of salt-- on Mars can contain enough oxygen for microbes to breathe," said lead author Vlada Stamenkovic, a theoretical physicist² at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

加州喷气推进实验室的理论物理学家弗拉达·斯塔门科维奇表示：“我们发现，火星上的卤水（高浓度盐水）中含有够微生物呼吸的氧气。”

"This fully revolutionizes our understanding of the potential for life on Mars, today and in the past."

“此发现完全改变了我们对火星可能存在生命的认知，无论是以前的还是现在的认知。”

Up to now, it had been assumed that the trace amounts of oxygen on the Red Planet were insufficient³ to sustain even microbial life.

时至今日，大家一直都认为，火星上稀薄氧气无法维持微生物的生命。

"We never thought that oxygen could play a role for life on Mars due to its rarity in the atmosphere, about 0.14 percent," Stamenkovic said.

斯塔门科维奇表示，“因火星大气中氧气含量约为0.14%，十分稀薄，所以我们未曾想过这点氧气可以让生物存活。”

By comparison, the life-giving gas makes up 21 percent of the air we breathe.

相比之下，地球大气中氧气含量为21%。