| The plains of solidified lava that give the moon its quirky human-like face were created more than 4 billion years ago, a new study says. |
一项新研究显示：凝固的熔岩形成平原，使月球看起来象张离奇的人脸，这些平原形成于40多亿年以前。 |
| The evidence comes from an unearthly silvery-grey stone that was blasted off from the face of the moon, perhaps by an impacting asteroid, and was then captured by earth's gravity, prompting it to fall to ground in Botswana.
An international team of researchers publish their study today in the journal Nature. |
证据来自于一块神秘的银灰色岩石，该岩石可能是由于跟一块小行星碰撞而脱离月球表面的，后来被地球的引力捕获，坠落在博茨瓦纳的地面上。不久前，一个跨国研究小组将他们的研究成果发表在《自然》（Nature）杂志上。 |
| In 1999, local people near the village of Kuke, in the grasslands of the Kalahari Nature Reserve, found the 13.5 kilogram remnant of this roving rock. They then sold it to meteorite hunters. |
1999年，库克（Kuke）村附近的当地人们在喀拉哈里自然保护区的草地上发现了这块13.5公斤的质地粗糙的残余陨石，后来卖给了陨石搜寻人员。 |
| Scientists have since confirmed that the rock, named Kalahari 009, came from the moon.They found the telltale signature of oxygen isotopes plus the ratio of iron to manganese in two volcanic minerals, olivine and pyroxene.The nature of these chemicals puts the rock into the category of a mare basalt. |
从那以后，研究人员证实了这块叫做“喀拉哈里009”的陨石来自月球，他们通过氧同位素以及两种火山矿物——橄榄石和辉石中的铁与猛的比例，发现了证据。这些化学物质证明该陨石属于月海玄武岩类岩石。 |
| This is lava that flowed out smoothly onto the lunar surface before solidifying, forming dark plains that early skywatchers mistakenly took for seas (mare in Latin). |
熔岩流在凝固之前顺利地流到月球表面上，形成了颜色暗淡的平原，早期的天空观察者误以为是月球上的海洋（“海”在拉丁语中是mare），称其为月海。 |
| A new analysis of fragments of phosphate in Kalahari 009 puts the rocks at the whopping old age of 4.35 billion years, give or take 150 million years, the study says. |
研究人员称，对“喀拉哈里009”中磷酸盐碎片的一项最新分析证明，月海玄武岩类岩石极其古老，形成于43.5亿年前，误差为1.5亿年。 |
| This suggests that mare-type volcanism must have occurred at least as early as this date, just after the first stage of lunar crust formation, say the authors, led by Dr Kentaro Terada of Hiroshima University in Japan and Dr Mahesh Anand of the UK's Open University. |
研究的发起人日本广岛大学的Kentaro Terada博士和英国开放大学的Dr Mahesh Anand指出：这肯定地说明了，形成月海的火山作用起码不比这个时间更晚，就发生在月球外壳形成的第一阶段之后。 |
| Mare volcanism overlapped with a later stage of volcanism, evidence of which was found in rocks picked up by the Apollo missions. |
月海火山作用跟后期的火山作用发生交迭，从阿波罗航天任务所采集的岩石中已经发现了证据，证实了这一点。 |
| The 'man in the moon' comprises eyes made of the Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis, a nose consisting of Sinus Aestuum, while the Mare Nubium and Mare Cognitum provide its mouth. |
“月中人”的眼睛由“雨海（Mare Imbrium）”和“澄海（Mare Serenitatis）”个构成；鼻子由“暑湾(Sinus Aestuum)”构成；而嘴巴是由“云海(Mare Nubium)”和“知海(Mare Cognitum)”构成的。 |
| These and other mare account for nearly a sixth of the lunar surface, mostly on the side visible from earth. |
上述各“海”和其他“海域”占据了月球的六分之一，主要位于朝向地球的一面。 |
