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  • Puddles on MARS

    This by way of NASA Watch;
    Aviation Week Exclusive: Water Spotted on Surface of Mars

    Editor's note:
    According to an item first posted by Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine: "NASA is ready to announce major new findings about the presence of water currently emerging onto the surface of Mars.

    If confirmed, this would increase the possibility that microbial life could have existed recently or possibly exists now on the Martian surface. The potential seepage of ground water onto or near the surface has been a key area of investigation by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft (AW&ST Nov. 27, pp. 53-55).

    The MGS spacecraft remains out of contact and is feared lost, as the new Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter also begins the search for evidence of Martian water."
    EDIT: NASA news briefing on Wednesday, December 6 at 1:00 pm ET discussing new findings from Mars Global Surveyor.



    It will be carried on NASA TV online;



    Apparently MGS made these findings before suddenly going offline last week.

    Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter being re-tasked to follow up on these findings is great since it has a much more powerful camera.
    Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 5 December 2006, 03:08.
    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

  • #2
    Originally posted by Dr Mordrid View Post
    This by way of NASA Watch;
    Apparently MGS made these findings before suddenly going offline last week.
    It got shot down by the Martians protecting their only water source!
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    • #3
      Or by the poodles. I want to know where the poodles went!
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      • #4
        there are no poodles on mars!
        maybe a beagle or two, thou
        Yeah, well I'm gonna build my own lunar space lander! With blackjack aaaaannd Hookers! Actually, forget the space lander, and the blackjack. Ahhhh forget the whole thing!

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        • #5
          Originally posted by gt40 View Post
          there are no poodles on mars!
          maybe a beagle or two, thou
          awesome!
          /meow
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          • #6
            This pic in Victoria Crater is an example of what perked the ears of posters to the space.com forum even before the announcement of tomorrows news conference re: water on Mars. This could have been taken at the edge of any desert riverbed I've ever seen a day or two after a storm;

            Dr. Mordrid
            ----------------------------
            An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

            I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

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            • #7


              NASA Finds Evidence Water Flowed Recently on Mars

              The photographs taken by the Mars Global Surveyor has scientists excited about the possibility of water on Mars

              A new study of photographs have revealed that bright new deposits observed in gullies on the planet Mars may prove that water carried sediment through them sometime recently, according to NASA. The U.S. space agency believes it has found "compelling" evidence that liquid water once existed on the surface of Mars.

              The recent images were taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor space probe. The discovery is important because it might help prove that the Red Planet has an environment that is favorable for living beings. Just trying to find remote signs of liquid water on Mars has been a goal among scientists around the world for a number of years.

              The cameras on the Mars Global Surveyor were the first to take images that initially suggested water once flowed on Mars. Scientists then went and searched valleys in search for conclusive evidence of water flow. Just like most reports regarding Mars, there is some debate as to whether or not it really was liquid water -- some scientists claim that liquid carbon dioxide may have cut the gullies.

              The findings by researchers were published today in the journal Science – NASA held a news conference to announce the results of the study. The idea that water recently flowed on Mars is another piece of the puzzle that NASA is trying to put together about the still very foreign Red Planet.
              /meow
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              • #8
                Water on mars?

                Main Machine: Intel Q6600@3.33, Abit IP-35 E, 4 x Geil 2048MB PC2-6400-CL4, Asus Geforce 8800GTS 512MB@700/2100, 150GB WD Raptor, Highpoint RR2640, 3x Seagate LP 1.5TB (RAID5), NEC-3500 DVD+/-R(W), Antec SLK3700BQE case, BeQuiet! DarkPower Pro 530W

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                • #9
                  I watched the live conference and it was really interesting. They had Myers give an intro, then the guy talked about water, the next guy talked about how they finally captured pictures of new craters that recently formed and then the last guy pissed over the other two (the devil's advocate, if you will).

                  The last guy was a good setup, I don't think I've ever watched a NASA thing and seen that before. He was probably there to prevent the media from running with the story and going, "NASA found water and dinosaurs on Mars, OMG!!!!!!1111!!!".

                  The water arguments were pretty compelling and they also explained why they don't think it's dust or any other known geologic activity. It's probably a mud flow we are seeing.

                  The other part about craters was interesting because as they explained it they only have pictures of 5% of Mars. To see many new crater formations within the past few years shows that the frequency of comet impacts on Mars is pretty high. Also they can now better study the nature of comet impacts.
                  Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra 9, Opteron 170 Denmark 2x2Ghz, 2 GB Corsair XMS, Gigabyte 6600, Gentoo Linux
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                  • #10
                    This post on SDC's forum sums up the logic nicely;

                    I haven't had a chance to read the paper yet. Where I work does not subscribe to Science (but I may get it today from a colleague who works in a place which does). But the MSS pages that were linked to above are very informative.

                    There is no doubt that something fluid has flowed down several gullies and deposited bright digitate deposits at their terminal ends.

                    These deposits are spatially associated only with gullies and are not associated with the previous dark slope steaks which have been seen forming. They are also distinct in morphology and albedo to those streaks are are thus a different to those streaks.

                    The big question is what is the fluidising liquid. I can see three possibilities:


                    1) Grain on grain flow down steep slopes (as happens on the Moon and elsewhere on Mars, forming slope streaks).

                    2) Subliming CO2 resulting in a fluidised flow (again possible examples have been seen elsewhere on Mars).

                    3) A water-mud slurry.

                    Against 1) we have the morphological evidence. These flows look quite diffferent to the dry partice flows we have seen before, especially their digitate distributaries which, as far as I know only form with liquid water.

                    Against 2) we have the fact the mid-latitude occurrence of these features means they are too warm to get CO2 frost or snow.

                    That leaves 3) which is consistent with the detailed morphology of the gullies and flows, and the fact we know that shallow water sources are likely in many faces on Mars.

                    So where to we go from here? We aren't going to get Steve's drilling rig, nor are we going to get a rover to these sites any time soon.

                    But I am very sure we will have HiRISE images soon, showing the detailed morphology of these features. These will tell us more how the flows behaved and thus what they were composed of. Plus people will be rechecking all the MOC images for any additional examples that might have been missed.

                    What I found interesting on the MSS pages is the map showing the distribution of gullies and slope streaks. I had not realised that they were so mutually exclusive, with the streaks occuring in the tropics and the gullies in the mid latitudes. The map also shows that the streaks only occur in the major bright areas on Mars, consistent with thick dust accumulations, and away from the relative wind swept dark areas.

                    The strong latitudinal control of the gullies in both hemispheres suggests very strongly that it is climate which is controlling their distribution on a global scale, not altitude or regolith.
                    Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 7 December 2006, 17:36.
                    Dr. Mordrid
                    ----------------------------
                    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

                    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by knirfie View Post
                      Water on mars?

                      haha ROFL!

                      btw, hello to all from London

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                      • #12
                        So are the poodles drinking the water... or... what?
                        The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

                        I'm the least you could do
                        If only life were as easy as you
                        I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
                        If only life were as easy as you
                        I would still get screwed

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                        • #13
                          No no, they lift their legs, and... voila! Here's a before-after pic:

                          There's an Opera in my macbook.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by az View Post
                            No no, they lift their legs, and... voila! Here's a before-after pic:


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                            • #15
                              Oh, it was YOU!
                              Last edited by az; 9 December 2006, 14:42.
                              There's an Opera in my macbook.

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