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NASA Says Mars Once "Drenched With Water"

Posted by michael on from the nice-day-for-a-swim dept.

NASA is currently holding a press conference (carried live on NASA TV) where they are discussing findings from the Mars rovers. They are saying that the crater that the second rover has landed in has convincing evidence that it was once drenched or covered in liquid water. They cite the tiny spherules, odd holes in the rocks, sulfur in the spectrometric analyses, and evidence of an iron sulfate hydrate (a hydrate is a chemical compound which includes water molecules in the crystal lattice). Update: 03/02 19:45 GMT by M : CNN has a story, or see the NASA press release.

5 of 1,048 comments (clear)

  1. A great breakthrough... by The+Ape+With+No+Name · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    If only to send a STFU to Fundos who deny evolution, etc. Of course, they think this is all being transmitted from a sound stage in Burbank.

    --
    Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
  2. Get off the cross by Gothmolly · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    We need the wood. To build another Mars mission!

    Of course you heard the story on NPR, along with stories about how eating raw eggs kills you, how children need to wear helmets while riding bicycles, and how the sky is falling. Oh yeah, and ABB all the way dude!

    Whether we get to see a 15 billion year old black hole or not is not as important as infusing a generation with the spirit of adventure, the way the Moon landings did. The Hubble studies history. Flying to Mars MAKES it. If you want to focus on the past, fine, let the rest of us taxpayers focus on the future.
    And stop sighing, you sanctimonious prick.

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
  3. Re:Key point by frodo+from+middle+ea · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Oh yeah, well I had 53x with your wife.

    --
    for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
  4. A very expensive P.R. mission. by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Public Relations is about social engineering. You are witnessing this in progress. Same with that dual comet story. The public, in the view of Upper Management, is weak, stupid and prone to panic attacks which might lead to economic disaster and people not paying their taxes.

    There are certain realities which are going to become painfully self-evident over the next few years. . .

    1. We Are Not Alone, (and that aliens are not good guys. Not by a long shot.)

    2. Comet disaster is something we are going to have to start living with fairly soon.

    These realities, which I have talked about at some length in the past, are well understood by Upper Management, and they seem to feel that maintaining careful control of how public awareness develops is vital to their 'plans'. (Plans, which, btw, are doomed to fail simply because that's one of the most reliable features of the dementia known as, 'Megalomania'.)

    Anyway. . , I hope everybody continues enjoying the show. NASA puts on a pretty good one, even if their whole operation is littered with idiocy and decay. --Again, the features of Megalomania loud and clear. Bush is a coke-head and Hitler attacked Russia in the frickin' winter time! This does not mean, unfortunately, that masses and masses of damage cannot still be the result.


    -FL

  5. Re:Key point by Moofie · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Carl Sagan is a fuckwit. He has zero credibility with me when he says anything about science.

    His fiction is fun. Unfortunately, with his ridiculous stance on "nuclear winter", his science became fiction.

    I wouldn't argue that it can't happen. I would argue that it would happen in any significantly detrimental way.

    --
    Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!