Geothermal Activity on Mars?

An anonymous reader writes "This article on the New Scientist site reports that Mars Odyssey has detected warm spots (20-40 degrees warmer irrespective of sunlight, day or night) in the Hellas basin."

Comments

what this article is about

[mandalayx]

For those who 1) don't read the article and 2) don't know much about science, this is why this article is "important":

Unusual warm spots on Mars might represent "ice towers" similar to those seen in Antarctica, say researchers. They could even harbour life, Nick Hoffman of Melbourne University told a conference on Thursday.

Then the article talks about how some guy discovered this and what the further implications can be.

Re:Question.

[blowdart]

An Italian astronomer named Schiaparelli created some of the first maps of Mars. He named features using words from biblical and mythical geography. Some of these names, such as Argyre, Hellas, and Tempe, are still used on maps and globes of Mars.

In the 1970s, after the Mariner spacecraft flew by Mars, many new images were returned to Earth. A special group of people was formed to decide on names for the newly discovered features. This group also set up rules for naming future discoveries.

All features on Mars have two names. The first is a formal name following the international rules that have been established. The other is a geologic name. The second name tells us what type of geologic feature it is. Following are some examples of geologic names:

• Mons: mountain
• Crater: circular depression
• Dorsum: ridge
• Planum: plateau or high plain
• Fossa: depression (hole)
• Valles: valley

For example, Olympus Mons is a mountain formed by a volcano. It is named after Mount Olympus in Greece. Sometimes the name order is reversed. For example, in Valles Marineris, the geologic name comes first. Valles Marineris is a valley named after the Mariner spacecraft that first flew by Mars.

Anyone can submit a name for a specific feature on Mars! The group meets once each year to consider appropriate names. If you would like to suggest a name for a feature on Mars, send your suggestion to the U.S. Geological Survey, Branch of Astrogeology, Room 409, 2255 N. Gemini Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86001.

Rules for Naming Martian Features

Large craters are named after deceased scientists who have contributed to the study of Mars.

• Gusev (Maturei M., 1826-1866, Russian astronomer)
• Lowell (Percival, 1855-1916, American astronomer)

Small craters are named for villages and towns of the world with populations less than 100,000.

• Aspen (Town in Colorado, USA)
• Bira (Town in Russia)
• Isil (Town in Spain)
• Jama (Town in Tunisia)
• Kakori (Town in India)

Large valleys are named for the word used for Mars in various languages of the world.

• Ares Vallis (word for Mars in Greek)
• Mangala Valles (word for Mars in Sanskrit)
• Marte Vallis (word for Mars in Spanish)
• Mawrth Vallis (word for Mars in Welsh)
• Nirgal Vallis (word for Mars in Babylonian)
• Tiu Vallis (word for Mars in Old English)

Small valleys are named for classical or modern names of rivers.

• Indus Vallis (river in Pakistan)
• Naktong Vallis (river in Korea)
• Warrego Valles (river in Australia)

All other features retain the names given by Schiaparelli or Antoniadi, another Italian astronomer.

• Amazonis Planitia (classical name)
• Libya Mons (classical name)
• Olympus Mons (classical name)

Rules for Naming Craters

Naming rules exist for most features on planets, moons, and asteroids. The following are the regulations for craters:

• Craters on Mercury are named after famous deceased artists, musicians, painters, or authors.
• Large craters on Venus are named after famous women.
• Small craters on Venus are given common female first names.
• Large craters on Earth's moon are named after famous deceased scientists, scholars, or artists.
• Small craters on the moon are given common first names.
• Craters on Jupiter's moon Europa are given names of Celtic gods and heroes.
• Craters on Jupiter's moon Ganymede are named for gods and heroes of the ancient Fertile Crescent people.
• Craters on the asteroid Ida are named for caverns and grottos of the world.

http://chainreaction.asu.edu/solarsystem/digin/nam e.htm

Re:Question.

[TripleA]

Simply put, Hellas is greek for Greece.

Re:Question.

[arcanumas]

Yes. Hellas is greek for Greece. It is the "proper" world for Greece and the one used from Ancient to Modern Greece by Greeks themselves (whe say "Hellada").
'Greek' is also of ancient origin and is the word that other European nations called the Ancient greeks. It comes from the Slav world "grex" (greek-latin conversion, sorry) , is a derogatory term and means "the imposter". There are other possibilities for the origin of the word but the aforementioned is the most convincing one.
So, Europe (and US) call Hellas as Greece and Asian counties call us Yunanistan (And that's another story :)

Re:Question.

[Ugmo]

Don't feel so bad about being called an inaccurate name by foreigners.

The Welsh in Wales are the remaining Celtic inhabitants of Britain before the Anglo-Saxons (and then Normans) came over and invaded. The Welsh name means "foreigners". The Anglo-Saxons thought the Welesh were foreigners when the Anglo Saxons were the ones who were foreigners.

Ireland across the water is really Eire but was called Hibernia in Latin. Hibernia means wintery weather because it rains all the time there. In Italy the winters are the rainy season. Ironically, Ireland is hit by the remainders of the Gulf Stream and it rarely gets as cold as say, New England in the winter and heavy snow is rare there. Palm trees grow outdoors in the southern part of the country. Meanwhile Greenland is covered in an ice sheet and is not called wintery.

After Ireland was called Hibernia is was called Scotia, land of the Scots. A Scot was an Irish person originaly. About the same time the Anglo-Saxons were invading the South of the Island of Britain the Irish were invading the North which was inhabited by Picts.

The Irish set up kingdoms and people started to call the Northern part Scotia Minor or "Little Ireland". Ireland itself was Scotia Major "Greater Ireland".

For some reason Ireland started to call itself Eire and Scots and Scotland came to mean Scotland.

I still don't know if Nova Scotia in Canada is New Scotland or New Ireland.

I am sure there are other examples of bad foreign names for groups of people being used as the official name of a people but I don't know them.

-1 OFFTOPIC

Re:Question.

[Lady Jazzica]

Here are two other origins for the word "Greek" or "Greece" that I found:

The American Dictionary says that the work "Greek" comes "from Greek Graikos, tribal name."

The Catholic Encyclopedia says:

The land and the people that we call Greece and Greeks are in their own language Hellas and Hellenes. Greek is a form of the Latin Graecus, which in various modifications (grieche, grec, greco, etc.) is used in all Western languages. Graecus is Graikos, an older name for the people. Graikos was a mythical son of Thessalos. Or, since this should rather be understood as derived inversely (the person as an eponymous myth from the race), various other derivations have been proposed. Graikos (a form Hraikos also exists) is said to have meant originally "shaggy-haired", or "freeman", or "dweller in a valley" (W. Pape, "Worterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen", 3rd ed., Brunswick, 1870, s.v. Graikoi). The first people so called were the people of Dodona in Epirus, then the Greeks in general. After the common use of the other name, Hellene, this one still survived. It occurs occasionally in classical writers; after Alexander it became common, especially among Greeks abroad (in Alexandria, etc.). From them it was adopted into Latin. But in Greek, too, it lasts through the Middle Ages as an alternative name for the Hellenes of classical times (Stephen of Byzantium, about A.D. 400: Graikos, ho Hellen quoted by Sophocles in "Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods", New York, 1893, s.v. Graikos). Latins and other foreigners, as well as Greeks writing to such people, use it not seldom for any Greek, as "Graecus" in Latin.

Earths pretty toxic

[spineboy]

Uh don't forget that Oxygen is pretty toxic/caustic. If something has spent it's whole life in a relatively oxygen free low low pressure environment, then the sudden change will be horrible for that life form. Kinda like we humans trying to live on the surface of Venus - not going to happen.

Re:the Pan Am Ad and planetary observation

[Ptraci]

Here ya go.

Maps

[Whitecloud]

Here's a photo of Mars, the elliptical bright feature at lower-center in the image is the Hellas Basin, the largest unequivocal impact basin (formed by an asteroid or comet) on the planet. Hellas is approximately 2200 km (1,370 mi) across. Really amazing detail, photo was taken by the Mars Global Surveyor, check out many more of its pics here.

Re:Rovers go there?

[sandrift]

Being a Mars scientist, I can help out here.

The landing sites are not changeable at this point for a variety of reasons. First of all, they are successfully headed in the right directions now; to change the course of one significantly would be a risk that NASA is unlikely to take based on one scientist's un-peer-reviewed musings (and which may be explainable by other geologic phenomena such as relatively low albedo surfaces).

Secondly, in addition to scientific interest, the landing sites are constrained to meet a long list of engineering constraints, including but not limited to: wind speeds, slopes, roughness, dustiness, and most importantly in this case, latitude and elevation. Such constraints are met by a relatively small portion of the Martian surface. The rovers are solar powered and would not get enough sunlight if they were to land in the Hellas basin, which is farther south than the engineering constraints allow. The landing system on these spacecraft requires a certain air density as well, and Hellas is too low in elevation for a safe landing.