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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."
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Even on Earth, there are a number of places with cold and volcanic vents, but ice towers form in only one place (the most extreme, granted). Obviously the conditions have to be just right. Other than being cold, Antarctica really isn't that much like Mars.
The ice tower story sounds like either Hoffman was either playing to the media, or they were playing him.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I think there is life there and the U.S. government thinks we can't handle the truth, so hence we don't go.
I suspect there is life, too. Of course I'm just an armchair scientist and this is just my humble opinion based on what I've read. Further, I suspect that "the government" (people, mostly) reads the same articles as you and is privy to the same data as you. That is what is great about living in an open society.
I don't think there is any conspiracy keeping us from "handling" the truth. Why, you ask? Clinton couldn't keep things mum about getting blow jobs on the floor of the oval office. Nixon couldn't keep things mum about having broken into his political opponents' headquarters. Reagan couldn't keep things mum about having sold weapons to the Iranians to fund a terrorist army in Central America. Bush is having a problem keeping a lid on using forged documentation as a pretext for war (and WHO, pray tell, would forge such a thing anyway?) THESE are secrets that people would certainly have given anything to keep. And still they got out. Because "the government" isn't "the government" -- it is a bunch of people, all with agendas, all using what they know to their advantage when they can. Welcome to the wonderfully messy world of democracy.
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, the above wasn't my point -- but I had to debunk the tinfoil hat wearers in this crowd at least a little...
I live in Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes. Most of those lakes are becoming unswimmable because of something called Eurasian Milfoil. Milfoil is a weed grows in lakes. It grows fast. Several feet a day. It was accidentally introduced to America in the early 1900s. It wasn't native but there isn't anything in the lakes on THIS side of the pond that like to eat it so it quickly clogs the entire lake.
And it spreads. From lake-to-lake. Boaters. Fish. Whatever. It finds a way to find a new lake that it can call home and it does. And once it does: Game over everyone else. Not instantly. And there is still a lake there. There is still water. And fish. But now there is a stinky gross weed clogging the entire lake for most of the summer, too. Not really enjoyable. A lot of nose holding and "I remember when we could swim in the lakes without all these weeds here" going on.
Hold on... I'm still building here. And I'm almost to the good stuff. (wait for it...)
My point is this: Let's say there is life on Mars. There won't be cows or zebra or fish or anything like that. No, there will be microbes. Tiny little red life forms that live with almost no oxygen and no water in the freezing cold, bombarded by radiation. Hmmmm... I'm not sure about the rest of you, but the prospect of bringing something that battle-hardened back to Earth to study does not inspire confidence in me. Chernobyl, Enron, Challenger, Columbia, Africanized Killer Bees, cross-pollinated genetically engineered corn... bad things happen unexpectedly. Stuff LEAKS. Again, no conspiracy needed, just the good old second law of thermodynamics coupled with that one law discovered by Murphy making a real world demonstration.
As I said in the subject of my post: I, for one, am glad we aren't going to Mars. We don't need any more milfoil, at least for now. Frankly, I'd be happy to see us wait a few thousand years. For real. Red mold everywhere? Yuck.
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.
OK, is New Scientist more of a scientific rag, meaning it's Celsius (and 30-40 is quite a lot!) or more of an American 'zine, meaning its Fahrenheit?
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
I suspect that all of the things other postulate about Mars are true... ie. geothermal activity, microbial life, underground water. We now just need to send people there to prove it.
Who's up for the trip?
Rich...
Ignore Alien Orders