Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Possible Active Glacier Found On Mars

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the dr-neukum-forever dept.

FireFury03 writes "The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has spotted an icy feature which appears to be a young active glacier. Dr Gerhard Neukum, chief scientist on the spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera said 'We have not yet been able to see the spectral signature of water. But we will fly over it in the coming months and take measurements. On the glacial ridges we can see white tips, which can only be freshly exposed ice'. Estimates place the glacier at 10,000 — 100,000 years old."

11 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet! by scubamage · · Score: 5, Funny

    The doctor in the article is named Dr. Neukem. If his first name is Duke, I would not want to be the one to contest his theory.

    1. Re:Sweet! by Fx.Dr · · Score: 3, Funny

      Why is that? It's not like he'd ever find you. Worst case scenario is that every six years he'd pop his head up to remind you that he's still around.

    2. Re:Sweet! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm a little mistrustful of someone who INSISTS that "white tips ... can only be freshly exposed ice"...

      Agreed 100%. Perhaps now my "Mars is made of meringue" hypothesis will finally be taken seriously!

    3. Re:Sweet! by AJWM · · Score: 4, Funny

      You misunderstand (or somebody did).

      It's not Duke Neukem, it's Doc Neukem.

      --
      -- Alastair
  2. Re:Possible landing zone for a Mars Mission? by CrackPipePls · · Score: 5, Funny

    and more importantly, to cool beer :-)

  3. Missing by Etrias · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh good! Glaciers on Mars. Nice for them to turn up because we're starting to miss a few down here.

  4. Mars Ice "Premium" Bottled Water? by Zymergy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Executive: "How can we get ahold of some of that Mars glacial ice? We could make a killing selling it to the bottled water crowd!"

    R&D: "We could make it a dilute 'blend' with filtered municipal tap water and disclose (in small print) that it is 'filtered for your purity'."

    Marketing: "The bottle cost should be just under $0.05 each (with printing) and we could put on its side in BOLD TYPE: 'Contains REAL Mars Water' and actual unit cost could be $1000 each. Then we could spread a rumor that it has aphrodisiac properties, it worked for the rhinoceros horn market!"...

    NASA Administration Plebe to NASA Director: "Sir, I think I have found a new way to raise REAL corporate money for our manned Mars missions..."

  5. Re:Not a surprise. by bondjamesbond · · Score: 1, Funny

    Vulcanism?? As in... Spock?

  6. Not News. by notnAP · · Score: 2, Funny

    Possible Active Interplanetary Missile Complex Found On Mars


    Now that's news.

  7. Re:Possible landing zone for a Mars Mission? by Urkki · · Score: 2, Funny

    When it's a choice between that and your own urine, which has been reprocessed through the spaceship urine reprocessing system 700 times, the dirty ice will start to look mighty appealing. Yes, because, you know, repeated artificial reprosessing of waste will wear out the water molecules. The electrons get all fractured, H-atoms may te twisted to wrong angles, little feces and urine particles may get stuck between the two H-atoms, and so on. Natural prosesses are much better because then the power of the Gaia (in this case the Martian Gaia) will be able to heal the damage in water molecules. And healthy water molecules will have the energy and will to keep themselves clean too, just like cats do.
  8. Nasa already found water on mars by kvap · · Score: 2, Funny

    A couple of years ago:

    http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0504/WaterOnMars2_gcc_big.jpg