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Probe Captures Avalanche on Mars

Posted by Zonk on from the not-a-recommended-vacation-spot dept.

mdekato writes "MSNBC reports that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured an avalanche on Mars' surface as it happened. Very good still images show what must have been an awesome sight. 'The full image reveals features as small as a desk in a strip of terrain 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) wide and more than 10 times that long, at 84 degrees north latitude. Reddish layers known to be rich in water ice make up the face of a steep slope more than 2,300 feet (700 meters) tall, running the length of the image. Mars' north pole is covered by a cap of ice, and it even snows there. The scientists suspect that more ice than dust probably makes up the material that fell from the upper portion of the scarp.'"

69 comments

  1. those poor martians by jollyreaper · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's what they get for straying off the marked path.

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    1. Re:those poor martians by ZuluZero · · Score: 1

      Oh, the humanity....er...marsanity.

    2. Re:those poor martians by Naughty+Bob · · Score: 3, Funny

      On the contrary, this is the beginning of a well rehearsed plan...

      --
      "Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
    3. Re:those poor martians by 0m3gaMan · · Score: 1
      "...The full image reveals features as small as a desk ..."


      So THAT'S where my desk is buried.

  2. As small as a what? by ricebowl · · Score: 5, Funny

    'The full image reveals features as small as a desk in a strip of terrain 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) wide and more than 10 times that long, at 84 degrees north latitude.

    I know that we've sent various missions to mars; rovers, probes, environmental impact among other what-have-you; but, and this, I feel is important, when did we send the office furniture?

    1. Re:As small as a what? by southpolesammy · · Score: 1

      Just part of NASA's offshoring efforts.

      --
      Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
    2. Re:As small as a what? by jaymzter · · Score: 5, Funny

      My question is, if there's an avalanche on Mars, does it make any noise? If so, what color?

      --
      If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
    3. Re:As small as a what? by exploder · · Score: 1

      That's about half a Volkswagen, right?

      --
      Yo dawg, I heard you like the Ackermann function, so OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD
    4. Re:As small as a what? by pipatron · · Score: 2, Funny

      Here in Sweden we are very used to assemble IKEA desks while skiing, It's not as hard as it looks.

      --
      c++; /* this makes c bigger but returns the old value */
    5. Re:As small as a what? by jbeaupre · · Score: 1

      NASA, as part of the government, is bureaucratic by nature. Everything must be supervised by some guy behind a desk. It's considered a hardship post, but ever since the first Viking lander, someone has been on Mars to supervise the government work going on. And of course he has to have a desk.

      In true bureaucratic style, the supervision must be supervised from even farther away. Thus the camera systems searching Mars. Well, they may find the desk, but they'll still have trouble spotting the dude himself for several more years.

      --
      The world is made by those who show up for the job.
  3. Casualties! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    My God! I hope there weren't any casualties!

  4. In Martian News Today by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 5, Funny

    "A skier died in an avalanche today while attempting a decent of the dangerous Xplplplt Cliffs near the North Pole. Search and rescue teams found the victim's body which suffered 8 broken limbs, damage to 2 heads, and 1 missing attenna. The victim did not appear to be wearing a teleporter as recommended for skiing in the backcountry."

    --
    It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  5. Why they never made Skiwatch by jollyreaper · · Score: 2, Funny

    Baywatch was a very popular show. It would seem to follow that Skiwatch would also be very popular. You're talking about athletic, fit people doing marvelous adventuresome things. Then I realized the problem: it's hard to show sufficient skin to entice the reptile brain audience when that would only lead to frostbite. A babe in a parka looks like a hunk in a parka looks like an IT nerd in a parka -- nobody could tell the difference. Skiwatch would never succeed. If that's the case, Martian Skiwatch would be even less successful, seeing as the actors would have to wear helmets to retain plausibility. Oh, wait, I know -- skin-tight environmental suits. Do you think audiences would buy the idea of suits thick enough to protect the wearer from 1% of Earth's sea level air pressure that are still thin enough to show nipplage?

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    1. Re:Why they never made Skiwatch by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 2, Informative

      Why not? There are plenty of proposals for skintight suits.

      The only problem is the helmets, but I'm sure that can be addressed with a 360 degree glass bubble.

      --

      GPL Deconstructed
    2. Re:Why they never made Skiwatch by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Stupid sexy Flanders!"

      --
      Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
    3. Re:Why they never made Skiwatch by srussia · · Score: 1

      Why not? There are plenty of proposals for skintight suits.

      The only problem is the helmets, but I'm sure that can be addressed with a 360 degree glass bubble. Problem solved: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarella_(film)
      --
      Set your phasers on "funky"!
  6. Nevermind the avalanches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    It's still cheaper to go to Mars then to Apsen!

  7. Links to hi-res images by jdb2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here are the links at which all the images taken by the HiRISE instrument can be found from low res to high res raw data :

    http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/gallery/press/20080303a.html/
    http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007338_2640/


    jdb2

    1. Re:Links to hi-res images by jdb2 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm replying to myself again as in my clumsiness I hit "Reply" instead of "Reply to this".
      Anyway, remove the slashes from the ends of the URLs. My brain was in HTML mode. :P


      jdb2

    2. Re:Links to hi-res images by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is already a field telling us the author of every comment. No need to add an extra 3 lines to your posts.

  8. Missed! by southpolesammy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Whew! Well that was close...guess that GRB wasn't perfectly aimed at us after all....

    --
    Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
    1. Re:Missed! by mhaskell · · Score: 1

      Somehow someone is going to blame Mars' global warming on us.

  9. A Desk? by Linker3000 · · Score: 1

    They saw a DESK? WTF!

    --
    AT&ROFLMAO
    1. Re:A Desk? by ricebowl · · Score: 1

      They saw a DESK? WTF!

      It's not that much of surprise when you think about it. It is, after all, the only logical progression for outsourcing; who's better for IT support? Some random guy or a spaceman? Soon, despite the cool, we'll be relieved that the help line's only over in Bangalore...

    2. Re:A Desk? by PingPongBoy · · Score: 1

      They saw a DESK? WTF!


      And a spy satellite looking at us would see how much then? Can they look into office buildings? What about a camera in a building 10 blocks away?

      --
      Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
  10. Oops by jdb2 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Oops. Remove the slashes from the ends of the URLs.

    jdb2

  11. The original link, with many more stunning shots by sighted · · Score: 5, Informative

    The original story from NASA contains some fascinating additional details, a beautiful picture of the Earth and the Moon taken from Mars orbit, and links to thousands of other Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images that were also released yesterday.

    --
    Saddle up: Riding with Robots
  12. Well, you know the old saying..... by Czarf · · Score: 3, Funny

    Avalanche is better than none.

    1. Re:Well, you know the old saying..... by Doug+Neal · · Score: 1

      Avalanche is better than none. Avalanche is what I do at about 12:30pm. Avalaaanche...
  13. Wait, what? by katterjohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "It's great to see something so dynamic on Mars. A lot of what we see there hasn't changed for millions of years."

    Mars has dust storms quite often, with some covering the entire planet. How would this have not changed anything during millions of years?

    1. Re:Wait, what? by Aegis+Runestone · · Score: 3, Insightful

      True, but we've never witnessed an avalanche on Mars before. Now that's pretty cool (no pun intended). This does not, however, necessarily show that the planet is active. As far as plate tectonics on Mars go--it's dead. :/

      --
      -Aegis Runestone-
    2. Re:Wait, what? by iamlucky13 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well first of all, he obviously said "A lot" hasn't changed, not all. The dust storms don't result in noticable changes to anything from a reasonable distance, certainly not from space. The recent storm that cut into the rovers solar power deposited a layer of dust not even thick enough to be opaque (fortunately), and for any natural objects, it's just dust that was already on them anyways. The dust is ultra-fine grit; nothing that catches the eye by itself.

      The polar CO2 icecaps come and go with the seasons, but are basically the same year to year.

      The dunes shift almost imperceptibly with the prevailing winds, but dunefields stay in the same approximate place.

      I think once or twice a crater has been discovered that wasn't in an older image. Meteor impacts are extremely rare and have yet to be seen in the instant of occurrence on Mars.

      Volcanic activity is completely non-existant on present-day Mars.

      There's quite a bit of stuff continually happening on Mars, but compared to Earth it looks dead. In comparison to a dust storm or a shifting sand-dune, seeing an avalance consisting of thousands of tons or more of material, some it probably decent size pieces actually in motion on Mars is like Die Hard versus a 1920's silent film. Heck, avalances and landslides even on busy earth are among the more remarkable geological processes.

      And seeing an event that lasts perhaps a few minutes on a planet that won't be completely mapped by MRO's HiRISE camera during it's entire time in operation is a really compelling hint that rapidly occuring events like this aren't entirely rare.

      When someone pointed out this image yesterday, I just stared at it in amazement for several minutes. This ranks up there Io's volcanoes in coolness. Shoemaker-Levy 9 hitting Jupiter still ranks as solar system natural event of the century, in my book, however.

    3. Re:Wait, what? by pipatron · · Score: 1

      The dust is ultra-fine grit

      Grits in an avalanche... I guess it's not very hot grits then?

      --
      c++; /* this makes c bigger but returns the old value */
  14. On Slashdot by PingXao · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I visit here to find out things I can't find anywhere else. This story has been on every major news outlet for over 18 hours now. I read all about it last night before I went to bed. Now it's dinner time EST and it's just now hitting slashdot? Are you kidding me?

    It is a great story, but it's not really "news" at this point. By now even the most hardened geek has already seen it someplace else.

  15. He would have been OK, except by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 4, Funny

    he got hit my a flying desk.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
    1. Re:He would have been OK, except by Gazzonyx · · Score: 5, Funny

      I guess Balmer is stronger on Mars...

      --

      If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.

    2. Re:He would have been OK, except by gobbo · · Score: 2, Informative

      I guess Balmer is stronger on Mars...

      No, desks are lighter.

      --
      Damn those pesky terrorists
  16. Global Warming or Al-Quida??? by choochb71 · · Score: 1, Troll

    So...did Mars global warming cause this (Democrats) or is it some kind of Al-Quida plan to keep us from Mars (Republicans)? I think it was Ralph Nader.

    1. Re:Global Warming or Al-Quida??? by truthful+cynic · · Score: 1

      The upper, steepest section, which appears highly fractured due to blocks pulling away from the wall, is the likely source zone for the falls. The precise trigger mechanism is not yet known, although the disappearance of the carbon dioxide frost Isn't it obvious by the loss of frost? Damn oil companies are ruining Mars already.
    2. Re:Global Warming or Al-Quida??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More like increases in solar energy. Wouldn't that be a hoot, disproving the global warming idiots by using a whole other planet as evidence.

    3. Re:Global Warming or Al-Quida??? by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      More like increases in solar energy. Wouldn't that be a hoot, disproving the global warming idiots by using a whole other planet as evidence.

      You'd still have to explain why the other seven^H^H^H^H^Hsix planets (and the dozens of moons) in our solar system are unaffected by the assumed increase in solar power output.

    4. Re:Global Warming or Al-Quida??? by truthful+cynic · · Score: 1
      If you really want to have a a /serious/ thought discussion on this, consider the following:

      1) Nothing much can be said about objects with not much atmosphere, since the only observable outcome would be the temperature of the body which would just fluctuate due to radiational cooling since there's no atmosphere to keep any excess heat in. This would eliminate Mercury and most of the moons.

      2) Thinking there will be any measureable outcome from single digit changes from an object that appears as a tiny spec in the sky is dubious. This eliminates the planets in the outer systems (Jupiter onward). The amount of thermal mass they have makes that even more unlikely.

      What does this leave? Venus, Earth, and Mars. No doubt Earth is one sample set. Venus is a much harder question as the source to its internal heat has been under debate. http://eclipseedge.org/msgboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=608/ so it would be difficult to tell what caused a temperature increase even if there was measured.

      Two samples don't prove a theory. But it should at least cause people to think that there might be other reasons and they bear serious investigation.

  17. New tag: newsatslashdotspeed by siglercm · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Ya know, your "news for nerds" source sucks when you heard a story about Mars on the boob tube this morning, only to read about it on /. 10 (or more?) hours later....

    Pls tag 'newsatslashdotspeed' -- thx :)

    --
    sigfault (core dumped)
    1. Re:New tag: newsatslashdotspeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mod parent -1, Asshole.

  18. interesting by wizardforce · · Score: 3, Informative

    speaking of "avalanches" of dust and rock, the image that was thought to indicate present day water movement on mars may actually be the result of one of these dust avalanches instead.

    --
    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
    1. Re:interesting by Foo2rama · · Score: 1

      I do not think this was a dust avalanche. If you look at the pictures you see the snow line above, and that line looks pretty broken up, that tied with the number of these caught on film makes it look like a fairly common occurrence. So yes this is water movement, but a landslide/avalanche does not leave the same footprint as water based geological weathering. For example water would not leave a talus field.

      --


      ---In a time of Chimpanzees I was a Monkey.
  19. It's their own fault, true by commodoresloat · · Score: 3, Funny

    But there's no need for a religious interpretation. This is clearly evidence of the effects of Martial Warming. If those silly Martians weren't so attached to their darn SUVs they might have escaped this fate....

  20. Nothing like a annoyed martian... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I, for one, welcome our recently buried overlords.

  21. Why post a third party summation - Go Direct NASA by icebike · · Score: 5, Informative

    It always amazes me that people will post the most slimmed down third party
    summation of a detailed article that appears on a non-commercial site:

    http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/mro20080303a.html

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  22. TheRealQuestion by rozz · · Score: 1
    also from the article:

    NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured an avalanche on Mars' surface and also *very* important here: what was Avalanche's little son doing on Mars on a school day?
    --
    "There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  23. Avalanche! by writerjosh · · Score: 1

    So, when do Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow, and Robert Forster show up for their 2008 remake of "Avalanche!" the movie? 1978 - imdb

    --
    Health Insurance Quotes
  24. Re:Why post a third party summation - Go Direct NA by slig · · Score: 1

    i concur! thankyou :)

  25. Wait, water? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Reddish layers known to be rich in water ice make up the face of a steep slope more than 2,300 feet (700 meters) tall, running the length of the image. Mars' north pole is covered by a cap of ice, and it even snows there. The scientists suspect that more ice than dust probably makes up the material that fell from the upper portion of the scarp. Since when have we known Mars has water? Did I miss something?
  26. You aren't getting it by dreamchaser · · Score: 2, Informative

    Most of the Martian terrain has apparantly been static for up to millions of years. Dust storms are one thing; we know there is a dynamic atmosphere with seasons and weather there. Capturing an actual avalance, where the surface features are moving and changing, is another matter entirely.

  27. ASCII Version by Tablizer · · Score: 1


      ~ / 3
      ~ -- 3
      ~ -- 3 3
      ~ \ 3

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  28. Wow. Just wow. by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
    (and I'm not talking about a certain MMORPG here).


    These must be the most impressive pictures taken by the Mars orbiters so far.

    1. Re:Wow. Just wow. by ZeroExistenZ · · Score: 1

      These must be the most impressive pictures taken by the Mars orbiters so far.

      [shifty eyes] ... that they have made public.

      --
      I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
  29. Re:The original link, with many more stunning shot by AndGodSed · · Score: 1

    That picture of Earth is awesome. I guess we are no longer a "Lonely Planet"... still small in the bigger scheme of things though...

    --

    Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity

  30. My bad by elrous0 · · Score: 1

    Sorry about the avalanche. I accidentally started the reactor. It was just so tempting to put my hand in the alien handprint.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  31. Why they always gotta be outdoing earth? by philspear · · Score: 1

    They never do anything small on mars, do they? They have that red dot that's apperantly something like 1000 times worse than any earth hurricane ever, they have two moons as opposed to our one. And now this 60 kilometer long avalanche visible from orbit. It wouldn't suprise me if someone responds with a link to a story that your average marsquake would be about 80 on the richter scale.

    1. Re:Why they always gotta be outdoing earth? by ittybad · · Score: 1

      Well, while the mountains are vastly larger, your comparisons are misguided. The red spot? Wrong planet. Your think Jupiter. Big Earth-quake? Can't hit 80. The scale only goes to 10. Anything worse than a 10 is still a 10. At any rate, would that not be called a Mars-quake?

      --
      No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.
    2. Re:Why they always gotta be outdoing earth? by wattrlz · · Score: 1

      You're thinking of the warp scale. The richter scale goes up past ten, it's just that, being a logarithmic scale, getting up to and beyond ten would require energy on a scale not often discussed outside of astronomy or science fiction.

  32. Re:The original link, with many more stunning shot by ittybad · · Score: 1

    Wait a second! Wait one gosh darn, cotton pickin' second. I have a question: This may be ignorance speaking, so I hope someone can shed some light on the subject. If you check out the image of Earth and our Moon, why do we not see stars? Where did they go?

    --
    No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.
  33. Re:The original link, with many more stunning shot by sighted · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's a question of exposure levels. Go out and take a picture of the full moon. If you have exposed the moon correctly, you won't see any stars around it, either. Its light will have washed them all out. Same deal here.

    --
    Saddle up: Riding with Robots
  34. Re:The original link, with many more stunning shot by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
    If you check out the image of Earth and our Moon, why do we not see stars? Where did they go?

    They went to the same place that they go to during the day. Hey, I don't know where that is, but I don't see any stars when the sun is shining, so they must have gone somewhere, right ?