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Mars Polar Cap Mystery Solved
Matt_dk writes "Scientists are now able to explain why Mars' residual southern ice cap is misplaced, thanks to data from ESA's Mars Express spacecraft (the same probe running the 'Mars Webcam'). It turns out the martian weather system is to blame. And so is the largest impact crater on Mars — even though it is nowhere near the south pole. Like Earth, Mars has frozen polar caps, but unlike Earth, these caps are made of carbon dioxide ice as well as water ice. During the southern hemisphere's summer, much of the ice cap sublimates, a process in which the ice turns straight back into gas, leaving behind what is known as the residual polar cap. The mystery was that while the winter cap is symmetrical about the south pole, the residual cap was offset, and scientists couldn't figure out why."
It's right where I left it.
Frost poast?
Mar's ice cap is made of water ice!
Mars did the calculation for one pole in Metric and the other one in Imperial. That's why they don't line up.
Of all people, NASA should know this.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
In a press statement, Marvin the Martian's publicist told reporters that Marvin felt joy that hey was vindicated by the scientists' report. "Marvin has said all along that the missing polar cap had nothing to do with his lifestyle decision in owning 12 Hummers or related to his Illudium Pu-36 Explosive Space Modulator factory emissions." The publicist did answer allegations that the factory used illegal cartoon workers that were drawn and not colored. A spokesduck from the leading cartoon union said, "For cartoons to be drawn and not colored, that's dessssssspicable!"
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
"It seems absurdly simple, but it is quite foreign to meteorology on our planet to have an impact crater affecting the global climate and weather patterns."
Tell that to the dinosaurs...
You can get 15 minutes of fame, but you can go down in history for infamy.
Mars prefers to where it's winter cap, gangsta style.
Is the angle of offset rakish or merely jaunty?
Tell that to the dinosaurs...
They aren't in Kansas anymore, either...
Nope. They were outlawed there three years ago.
My blog
I heard that it's sublime!
My blog
Finally, someone has solved the mystery of why weather prediction is called meteorology.
Maybe now the ending scene in Total Recall makes some more sense? I'll have to rewatch it and see...
No, that won't help...
You will not drink with us, but you would taste our steel? - Walter Matthau, The Pirates