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BBC: Mars 'not a watery world'
Scoria writes "Contrary to a belief shared among many scientists, new evidence established by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor suggests that the planet may not have once possessed a temperate climate capable of sustaining life. Instead, an absence of carbonate rock deposits, which require the presence of liquid water to be produced, lends credence to those who believe that Mars is perpetually frozen."
Anyhow, JPL sent out a press release yesterday: New Findings Could Dash Hopes for Past Oceans on Mars
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
The article seems to say that we've finally found some carbon-bearing minerals, but some people in Arizona don't think it means anything. What's the story here? Is it new that we found some carbon-bearing minerals or is it new that the group in Arizona has made some conclusions based on the data?
It's such a shallow article it's hard to tell if this is significant. It makes me think of someone saying over and over and over again that there's absolutely no evidence to suggest x. When someone comes up with some evidence that does suggest x, the naysayer quickly fires back, "Well, that's only a little bit of evidence, so it's still not true." Maybe, maybe not.
I agree with the NASA guy. It's too early to tell.
Alex.
Now Russia won't have to worry about those silly control rods to help keep the reactor cooler in their proposed Mars Nuclear Station !
after careful examination of available data, and in light of recent probes, i have determined that my ex-girlfriend was always cold and frozen. there is no clear evidence of a soul, warm blood, or a conscience.
Carbonates can also precipitate unassisted. A dramatic example is the somewhat speculative theory known as the snowball Earth. For periods of 10 million years and repeating perhaps up to 4 times starting 3/4 and ending 1/2 a billion years ago, the Earth froze. Large glaciers covered the land and the oceans were capped by a kilometer of ice. Without getting into a heated discussion about how this occurred, the escape sequence is the interesting part. Volacanoes poke their way through the ice and vent CO2 into the atmosphere. Since there was no biological activity, the CO2 kept building up until the greenhouse effect can melt the ice. The newly liquid oceans then absorbed CO2 from the extremely high concentrations in the atmosphere, and then rapid carbonate precipitation commenced, leaving, in some cases, crystal clusters as tall as a person.
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
Carbonate deposits would most likely be found in the basins, but those are also the areas most likely to be filled with dust, lava, and ice. On Earth, those low points with their deposits eventually get lifted up into mountain ranges, which is why they get exposed, but I believe on Mars, that doesn't happen very much. So, the result that we don't see a lot of carbonates isn't all that surprising even if there were moderately sized oceans on Mars a long time ago.
...it's closer and has an atmosphere from which to derive needed elements for the exploring man.
Oh, and it's not cold at all, especially on the sunny side.
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
Dammit! I guess that means my martian wakeboarding career is over before it began
Currently by our limited view of how life has come to be what it is and evolved, we believe water to be essential to the existence of life. Does this mean that there can be other forms of life that don't require water? Sure, its a good way to find life that is like that which we are accustomed to, but perhaps there are other forms of life that don't require the presence of water. I don't claim to be a scientist...just food for thought :)
Mark Loeser
That should be, The thing is, the..., and capitalize Earth. :P
Nos una. Nos unique. Nos victum.
Currently by our limited view of how life has come to be what it is and evolved, we believe water to be essential to the existence of life. Does this mean that there can be other forms of life that don't require water?
Ok. People watch too much Star Trek. On the other hand, this is Slashdot.
The reason life is grounded around water and carbon have to do with the very special chemical properties of water - a few being it's less dense solid than liquid, and it dissolves almost everything - and the fact carbon forms these nice long chains. Nothing else does. Biochemistry is mind-bogglingly complicated.
Those nice long chains allow all sorts of good things (tm) to happen. Like you and me. Nothing else has the properties that are required for those complex reactions to happen.
Until/Unless an AI is developed, nothing else in the known physical world meets the requirements for life. And that AI would have been created by sacks of water. I haven't seen any real papers or proposals to the contrary. If you could devise a mechanism based on known physics that demonstrated this would be possible, you would become very famous.
The depressing physics here are the same as everywhere else.
..don't panic