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Vast Subsurface Martian Ice Discovered
The Fun Guy writes to tell us New Scientist is reporting that deep-scan radar results from ESA's Mars Express spacecraft have revealed vast amounts of subsurface ice. From the article: "Intriguingly, the signal reflected from the bottom of the crater is so strong and appears so flat that it may be liquid water. 'If you put water there, that's what the signal might look like,' Johnson told New Scientist. But he cautions the data is based on only one pass over the region and could be caused by another material."
also found was John Carter, slightly the worse for wear.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
More detailed analysis of the radar image indicates that the shape of the flat region actually appears to be almost perfectly rectangular, with an aspect ratio of 4:9. Nobody is quite sure what to make of that.
The implications are that there will likely be further implications
Actual Scientist - If you put water there, that's what the signal might look like.
newscientist.com - Radar reveals ice deep below Martian surface
Slashdot.com - Vast Subsurface Martian Ice Discovered
The headlines gets better and better!
This sounds very interesting!
Click here for an audio interview about the finding.
If I clone myself, can I call it a thread?
If a girl winks to us, can I call it a race condition?
Its too thin. That's the problem, trying to make the atmosphere thicker. You basically have to import gasses one way or another. Gasses are bulky though, there are better ways to do it, like plants, biomass, etc. that can break down matter from a solid state into gas. Martian rock is actually rather rusty and carbonaceous (sp?) if you had a good cheap source of heat you could heat it up and get some carbon dioxide and oxygen off of it... its not an easy problem to tackle. Other methods that have been suggested have been bombarding the surface with asteroids from the asteroid belt (many of them have a lot of solid gasses on them) or detonating nuclear bombs (bad idea IMO).
-everphilski-
NASA did not "find water" years ago... or ever! They found the gamma-ray spectrometry signature for hydrogen and proposed this was likely locked up in ice. Now a different means has been used to measure the subsurface (much more effectively in terms of depth, if less conclusively in terms of composition) and also found results not inconsistent with ice. We will probably not 'find ice' until someone goes there and drills. Until then, different means of measurement are a good idea (even though the media, and worse the bottom-feeding pseudo-journalism of sites like Slashdot, will misinterpret the conclusions that can be drawn).
NASA did not "find water" years ago... or ever!
Lies! Definitive proof of water on Mars.
Ice makes terraforming quite easy.
Cohagen, give those people air!
|plastic....or gasoline?|