在国际航天界,1996年岁末的热门话题,可以说是火星。美国和俄罗斯相继发射了3个火星探测器,其中俄罗斯的一个探测器发射失败,蒙受重大损失。其余的探测器正在飞往火星途中。其实人们对火星生命的兴趣,在去年夏天就因为据说发现了火星陨石中包含原始生命的证据,而形成争论的热点。本刊去年12月号插页11的彩图已作了初步介绍。本文就火星生命迹象,再作进一步报道。 In the international space community, the hot topic of the year-end of 1996 can be said to be Mars. Three Mars probes were fired by the United States and Russia, among which a Russian probe failed in launch and suffered heavy losses. The rest of the detectors are on their way to Mars. In fact, people’s interest in the life of Mars has been hotly debated last summer as evidence of the original life contained in the Martian meteorites was said to have been discovered. This magazine last December insert 11 has been a preliminary description of the color map. This article further reports on the signs of Mars’s life.