Earth’s oceans have made it the perfect environment for biodiversity, but a new study suggests that it may not have the best conditions in the galaxy.
地球上的海洋已经使它成为生物多样性的完美环境，但一项新的研究表明，它可能不是银河系中条件最好的。
The study suggests that exoplanets that have “favorable ocean circulation patterns” could be better suited to support a wider range of life than Earth.
研究表明，具有“良好海洋环流模式”的系外行星，比地球更适合支持更广泛的生命范围。
“This is a surprising conclusion,” said lead researcher Stephanie Olson of the University of Chicago in a statement. “It shows us that conditions on some exoplanets with favorable ocean circulation patterns could be better suited to support life that is more abundant or more active than life on Earth.”
芝加哥大学的首席研究员斯蒂芬妮·奥尔森在一份声明中说：“这是一个令人惊讶的结论。”“这表明，在一些具有良好海洋环流模式的系外行星上，条件可能更适合比地球上更丰富或更活跃的生命。”
Olson, who presented the research at the Goldschmidt Conference in Barcelona, said that life on Earth is dependent upon the upward flow of the oceans, which brings back nutrients from the deepest part of the ocean to the top, where photosynthetic life is abundant.
奥尔森在巴塞罗那的戈德施密特会议上介绍了这项研究，他说，地球上的生命依赖于海洋的向上流动，这将营养物质从海洋的最深处带回顶部，那里有丰富的光合作用。
“More upwelling means more nutrient resupply, which means more biological activity,” Olson added. “These are the conditions we need to look for on exoplanets.”
奥尔森补充说：“更多的上升流意味着更多的营养物质的再供应，这意味着更多的生物活动。”“这是我们在系外行星上需要寻找的条件。”
Olson and the other researchers used a series of computer models to see which exoplanets could have the conditions for efficient ocean upswelling.
奥尔森和其他研究人员使用一系列的计算机模型，来观察哪些系外行星有条件进行有效的海洋上升流。
“We found that higher atmospheric density, slower rotation rates and the presence of continents all yield higher upwelling rates,” Olson said in the statement. “A further implication is that Earth might not be optimally habitable — and life elsewhere may enjoy a planet that is even more hospitable than our own.”
奥尔森在声明中说：“我们发现，较高的大气密度、较低的自转速率和大陆的存在，都会产生较高的上升流速率。”“另一个暗示是，地球可能不是最适宜居住的——而其他地方的生命，可能会享受一个比我们自己更宜居的星球。”
Georgia Institute of Technology assistant professor Chris Reinhard, who was not involved in the study, said that researchers expect oceans “to be important in regulating some of the most compelling remotely detectable signs of life on habitable worlds,” but added that the understanding of oceans beyond the solar system “is currently very rudimentary.”
佐治亚理工学院的助理教授克里斯·莱因哈德(Chris Reinhard)没有参与这项研究。他说，研究人员预计海洋“在调节可居住世界上一些最引人注目的、可远程探测到的生命迹象方面很重要”，但补充说，对太阳系之外的海洋的理解“目前非常初级”。
It’s highly likely that oceans are common throughout the Milky Way galaxy. NASA’s Kepler space telescope and other instruments have suggested that one in four stars hosts an Earth-like planet, but with current technology limitations, these exoplanets have to be studied from afar.
很可能整个银河系都有海洋。美国国家航空航天局开普勒太空望远镜和其他仪器表明，四分之一的恒星拥有类似地球的行星，但由于目前的技术限制，这些系外行星必须从遥远的地方进行研究。
Despite these constraints, Olson’s hypothesis, which Reinhard called “a significant and exciting step forward,” is that it’s expected that life “is almost certainly more common than ‘detectable’ life.
尽管有这些限制，莱因哈德称奥尔森的假设是“一个重要而令人兴奋的进步”，即人们预期生命“几乎肯定比‘可检测’的生命更普遍”。
“This means that in our search for life in the Universe, we should target the subset of habitable planets that will be most favorable to large, globally active biospheres because those are the planets where life will be easiest to detect–and where non-detections will be most meaningful,” Olson said.
“这意味着，在我们寻找宇宙生命的过程中，我们应该瞄准那些——对大型的全球活跃的生物圈——最有利的可居住行星的子集，因为这些行星是生命最容易被探测到的，而非探测最有意义的行星。”奥尔索说。N说。
Recently, data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope gave scientists the first glimpse into conditions on the surface of a rocky exoplanet, Planet LHS 3844b. The exoplanet, which is 48.6 light-years from Earth and has a radius 1.3 times that of Earth, according to NASA, is orbiting a small star called an M dwarf. It was first spotted by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey in 2018.
最近，来自美国宇航局斯皮策太空望远镜的数据，让科学家们第一次看到了岩石系外行星LHS 3844B的表面状况。据美国宇航局称，这颗外行星距离地球48.6光年，半径是地球的1.3倍，正在围绕着一颗叫做M矮星的小恒星运行。2018年，美国国家航空航天局的凌日系外行星卫星调查中，首次发现了它。
Though NASA’s search for life has largely focused on planets that are in the “habitable zone,” the space agency recently announced that it would explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa to see if it “could harbor conditions suitable for life.”
尽管美国宇航局对生命的探索主要集中在“可居住区”内的行星上，但宇航局最近宣布，它将探索木星冰冷的卫星欧罗巴，看看它是否“能够拥有适合生命的条件”。
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