The idea that earthly life might have arrived from space has a surprisingly long and even occasionally distinguished history. 关于早期生命来自太空的观点已经存在很长时间，偶尔甚至使历史生辉。

The great Lord Kelvin himself raised the possibility as long ago as 1871 at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 早在1871年，开尔文勋爵本人在英国科学促进协会的一次会议上也提出过这种可能性。

when he suggested that "the germs of life might have been brought to the earth by some meteorite." 他认为：“生命的种子可能是陨石带到地球上的。”

But it remained little more than a fringe notion until one Sunday in September 1969 但是，这种看法一直不过是一种极端的观点，直到1969年9月的一个星期天。

when tens of thousands of Australians were startled by a series of sonic booms and the sight of a fireball streaking from east to west across the sky. 那天，成千上万的澳大利亚吃惊地听到一连串轰隆隆的声音，只见一个火球从东到本划过天空。

The fireball made a strange crackling sound as it passed and left behind a smell that some likened to methylated spirits and others described as just awful. 火球发出一种古怪的格格声，还留下了一种气味，有的人认为像是甲基化酒精，有的人只是觉得难闻极了。

The fireball exploded above Murchison, a town of six hundred people in the Goulburn Valley north of Melbourne, and came raining down in chunks, some weighing up to twelve pounds. 火球在默奇森上空爆炸，接着石块似雨点般地落下来，有的重达5千克以上。默奇森是个600人的不镇，位于墨尔本以北的古尔本峡谷。

Fortunately, no one was hurt. 幸亏没有人受伤。

The meteorite was of a rare type known as a carbonaceous chondrite, and the townspeople helpfully collected and brought in some two hundred pounds of it. 那种陨石是罕见的，名叫碳质球粒陨石。镇上的人很帮忙，捡了90千克左右回来。

The timing could hardly have been better. 这个时间真是最合适不过。

Less than two months earlier, the Apollo 11 astronauts had returned to Earth with a bag full of lunar rocks, 不到两个月以前，“阿波罗11号”刚刚回到地球，带回来一满袋子月球岩石，

so labs throughout the world were geared up—indeed clamoring—for rocks of extraterrestrial origin. 因此全世界的实验室都在焦急地等着要——实际上是吵着要——天外来的石头。