Nasa's Perseverance Rover has spent the past four years exploring an area of Mars called the Jezero Crater. It's dry and dusty, but billions of years ago, it was thought to be an ancient lake with a river flowing into it.美国国家航空航天局的 “毅力” 号火星车在过去四年里探索了火星上被称为杰泽罗陨石坑的区域。这片区域干燥并布满灰尘，但科学家认为数十亿年前这里是一个古湖泊，有一条河流汇入其中。

The intriguing rocks were found on the riverbed. They have unusual ringed markings, nicknamed 'leopard spots' by the researchers, and black dots the team are calling 'poppy seeds'. These features are actually minerals, and the scientists think they could have been produced by chemical reactions associated with microbes.这些引人注目的岩石就是在这里的河床上被发现的。它们带有被研究人员戏称为 “豹纹” 的不同寻常的环状斑纹，以及被研究团队称为 “罂粟籽” 的小黑点。岩石上的这些特征其实是矿物质，而科学家们认为这些矿物质可能产生自与微生物相关的化学反应。

Life isn't the only possible explanation. The minerals could have been made by natural geological processes. The only way to find out for sure is to bring the rocks back to Earth for analysis. Missions to return samples have been proposed, but there's uncertainty because of the proposed cuts to Nasa's budget.生命并不是对这些矿物质的唯一解释。这些矿物质也可能产生于自然地质作用的过程。唯一能查明真相的方式就是把这些岩石带回地球进行分析。已经有人提议开展航天任务带回这些样本，但这尚存在不确定性，因为已有提议削减美国国家航空航天局的预算。

While there's still much to find out, these rocks are tantalising, and the findings are strong enough to meet Nasa's criteria for potential biosignatures, features that warrant further investigation to determine if they really are a sign of life.还有许多事情尚待发掘，但这些岩石十分诱人，而且目前的研究结果所具备的说服力也达到了美国国家航空航天局对潜在生物特征的判定标准。潜在生物特征指的是 “足以满足值得进一步调查的理由，以确认它们是否真的是生命的迹象”。