Scientists just discovered a new crater on the moon — they call it a 'freckle'

科学家们不久前在月球上发现了一个新的陨石坑——他们将其命名为“雀斑”

The headline says it all: The list of our moon's craters just got a little longer.

标题充分表明：我们月球上的陨石坑列表变得越来越长了。

On Nov. 13, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) team — which operates visual equipment on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) — announced the discovery of a never-before-seen dent in Earth's natural satellite. It appears to be about 72 feet (22 meters) in diameter, probably formed between December 2009 and December 2012 and comes from a collision scientists say happened just north of another lunar cavity, Römer crater.

在11月13日，在美国宇航局操作月球勘测轨道飞行器（LRO）的月球勘测轨道飞行器相机（LROC）团队宣布在地球的天然卫星上发现了一个从所未闻的凹痕。其直径约为72英尺（约22米），大概于2009年12月至2012年12月之间形成，科学家宣称发生在另一个月球空洞罗默陨石坑北部之间的碰撞。

What's important to keep in mind, though, is that finding new craters on our moon isn't really a new thing for LROC. One of its capabilities is to perform temporal analyses, which essentially means comparing before-and-after pictures of the same section of the lunar surface as seen from orbit. Indeed, this strategy has led to LROC discovering quite a few new impact craters on our planet's companion. This has, in fact, been a big deal, because it proved to us that the moon's surface is dynamic even on a human timescale.

然而，需牢记于心的是，在月球上发现新的陨石坑对月球勘测轨道飞行器相机而言并不稀奇。能够进行时间分析是它的能力范畴之一，实质上意味着我们可以通过此技术从而比较在轨道上看到的月球表面同一处前后的照片。实际上，此策略致使月球勘测轨道飞行器相机在我们星球的伴星上发现了许多新的撞击坑。这个发现具有具有重大意义，因为它向我们证明了即使处于人类时间维度上，月球的表面也是动态活动的。

For instance, as of a 2016 statement from the LROC team, scientists had found over 200 impact craters that formed during the LRO mission (which began in 2009). In 2023, the moon-orbiting probe even found a possible human-made crater — the consequence of Russia's Luna 25 lunar lander crashing into the world's surface.

例如，依据2016年月球勘测轨道飞行器相机团队的一份声明，科学家们已经发现了超过200个在月球勘测轨道飞行器任务（于2009年开始）期间形成的撞击坑。在2023年，绕月探测器甚至发现了一个可能是人为造成的撞击坑，这是俄罗斯Luna 25号月球着陆器撞上世界表面而造成的后果。

As for this latest crater discovery, the team says what we know so far about the subject is that it ejected bright material tens of yards from the crater rim upon impact, and that this ejection yielded "sunburst-shaped" rays. Similar sorts of rays have been seen near fresh lunar craters before, such as with this impact from March 17, 2013.

对于这个陨石坑的最新发现，该团队表明，截至目前，我们对此现象的理解是着陆器在撞击时，于距离陨石坑边缘附近数十码的距离处会喷射出明亮的物质，且这种喷射会形成了“旭日形”的射线。在此前也曾遇到过在新的月球陨石坑附近会有类似的现象，比如在2013年3月17日的这次撞击。

"Over time, the rays will darken to the shade of the surrounding regolith as the material is exposed to space weathering," the LROC statement reads.

月球勘测轨道飞行器相机团队声明中说明：“随着时间的流逝，材料长期暴露于太空的风化中，射线的光亮会逐渐变暗到风化层间的阴影中。”

It's also notably small, as the team refers to it as a "freckle" on the moon.

因为它非常之小因而研究团队称其为月球上的“雀斑”。

Finding new craters on the moon is "essential for understanding impact rates and crater degradation rates over time, as well as for planning safe, successful missions to the moon," the statement adds.

此份声明还补充道，在月球上发现新陨石坑的事件“对于我们了解与月球表面之间的撞击率以及陨石坑随着时间增长的退化率和相关的安全规划，还有对于登月任务的成功都是具有重大意义的·。

The latter point is particularly important, as several nations are racing to get boots back on the moon, including NASA. NASA's Artemis moon program, presently slated to roll out over the next decade, intends to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972. As a result, scientists have been meticulously trying to learn about the safety of the selected landing zone, a large region near the moon's south pole. For instance, you have to take into consideration how good communication with Earth will be from a certain location, what the general terrain is like and what lighting conditions might be, as shadows on the moon can be tricky. Some experts are even taking into consideration seismic conditions (moonquakes, basically).

后者尤为重要——包括美国国家航空航天局（NASA）在内的多个国家正争相重返月球。NASA的“阿尔忒弥斯”月球计划目前定于未来十年内推进，旨在实现自1972年以来人类首次载人登月。因此，科学家们正细致研究选定着陆区的安全性，该区域位于月球南极附近的广阔地带。例如，需考量特定地点与地球的通信质量、地形地貌特征、光照条件（月球阴影可能带来复杂影响），部分专家甚至在评估月球的地震活动情况（本质即月震）。

So, presumably, a landing zone with an unexpected crater could spell disaster for such a mission. The more we know about our moon's dented body, the better.

因此，推测来看，若着陆区存在未探测到的陨石坑，可能会给这类任务带来灾难性后果。我们对月球表面的坑洼地貌了解得越充分，任务成功的把握就越大。