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Under an icy crust, one of Saturn's smallest moons harbors a pool of water equal to the largest lakes on Earth, adding to evidence that the frigid outlands of the solar system may be suitable for the chemistry of life, planetary scientists in the U.S. and Italy said Thursday.
美国和意大利行星科学家周四称，在土星的最小卫星之一土卫二(Enceladus)的一片冰面下方发现了大片液态水，其规模和地球上最大的湖相当。这是太阳系外围或适宜生命存在的又一证据。
The subsurface lake on the moon Enceladus was revealed by gravity measurements made by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Cassini probe, which has been traveling among Saturn's moons for the past decade. The scientists, who reported their work in Science, said the moon has a reservoir of water beneath a sheath of ice 18 to 24 miles thick.
美国国家航空航天局(National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA)的“卡西尼”(Cassini)号探测器对土卫二进行重力测量后发现了该片湖水，卡西尼号过去10年中穿越于土星的多颗行星之间。科学家将此次研究结果刊登于《科学》(Science)杂志，称土卫二在一片18至24英里（29至39公里）厚的冰面下方存有液态水。
'It is as large as or larger than Lake Superior,' said planetary scientist David Stevenson at the California Institute of Technology, who was part of the research team led by aerospace engineer Luciano Iess at the Sapienza University of Rome.
此次研究小组成员、加州理工学院(California Institute of Technology)行星科学家史蒂文森(David Stevenson)说， 这片湖水至少和苏比略湖一样大，甚至可能更大。此次研究由罗马大学(Sapienza University of Rome)航天工程师耶斯(Luciano Iess)带领的研究小组进行。
In 2005, the Cassini probe detected water vapor and ice spewing from vents near the moon's South Pole, where the subsurface lake is located. The researchers believe the lake rests directly on a bed of silicate rocks that could leach organic chemicals into the water.
2005年卡西尼号探测到土卫二南极地区附近的孔中喷射出水蒸气和冰，而这里正是冰下湖的所在处。研究人员相信这片液态水直接位于硅酸盐岩石的湖床上方，其有机化合物或可直接渗入水中。
'It makes the interior of Enceladus an attractive place to look for life,' said astrobiologist Jonathan Lunine at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
康奈尔大学(Cornell University)天体生物学家路宁(Jonathan Lunine)说，这一发现使得土卫二内部成为探寻生命的一个更具吸引力的对象。
