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Mars Lander Sees Falling Snow

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the just-a-bad-signal dept.

Riding with Robots writes "NASA reports that the Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. According to the Canadian team running a weather experiment, a laser instrument designed to study how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers above the landing site. Data shows the snow vaporizing before reaching the surface, but one of the mission scientists said, 'We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground.' Spacecraft soil experiments have also provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water."

30 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Robot Santa has moved shop! by xpuppykickerx · · Score: 2, Funny

    Screw Neptune! Mars has way better perks!

    1. Re:Robot Santa has moved shop! by DittoBox · · Score: 4, Funny

      In Soviet Russia...we have Red Christmas!

      --
      Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.
    2. Re:Robot Santa has moved shop! by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's not snow! It's falling Ash! Run little lander, ruuuuun!

      I think we'll be safe, as long as he's not falling chainsaw side down.

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  2. If there is water... by MosesJones · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.
            Dan Quayle, 8/11/89

    Turns out Dan was right ;)

    --
    An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
    1. Re:If there is water... by LiENUS · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Now all we need is to get enough nuclear fissible material into the core of mars to start back up its protective magnetic field to keep any atmosphere we might create there from being stripped away.

    2. Re:If there is water... by KillerBob · · Score: 4, Informative

      Mars having 1/3 the gravity has more to do with its thin atmosphere than any lack of magnetic field. Having no magnetic field would remove protection from solar wind and radiation, making it unable to support life as we know it, but wouldn't actually affect how thick an atmosphere the planet could retain.

      Mars has a magnetic field, btw. It's Venus that doesn't.

      --
      If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
    3. Re:If there is water... by KillerBob · · Score: 4, Informative

      bleh... that'll teach me to post when awake... Mars has no magnetic field, Venus has a very very weak one.

      --
      If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
    4. Re:If there is water... by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Water, soil, sunlight...does that mean we can grow potatos?

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    5. Re:If there is water... by marcosdumay · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb"

      No problem, your sig excuses you.

      --
      Rethinking email
    6. Re:If there is water... by Nixoloco · · Score: 3, Informative


      Without a strong magnetic field, the solar wind will strip away the atmosphere over time. Lighter elements especially, will be stripped away rapidly.

      NASA seems to think that over 1/3 of Mars atmosphere was stripped away by solar winds over the years.

      Also, Venus is experiencing the same.

    7. Re:If there is water... by isomeme · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yep, which means Mars supports vodka production, the key element in colonizing a cold, dark, windswept wasteland.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
  3. White Christmas? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    OK, so any chance of a white Christmas on Mars?

  4. Canadians? Snow? Mars? by Toshito · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is it April 1st again?

    --
    Try it! Library of Babel
  5. Canadian Funding rounds by MosesJones · · Score: 5, Funny

    Canadian Scientist: We'd like some money to look for Snow on Mars
    Canadian Funding: Errr we have lots of Snow already

    CS: Ahh but if we find snow on Mars then we can ski-doo on Mars
    CF: Errr we can ski-doo here

    CS: Well yes but if we find the snow first we'll get first tracks which means the Yanks will have to let us go on the manned mission
    CF: Sweeeeet

    Yes folks, its all about finding freshies and there is no lengths to which Canadians will not go in the search for fresh powder.

    --
    An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
    1. Re:Canadian Funding rounds by a+whoabot · · Score: 2, Funny

      Alternative ending.

      CS: Well yes but just think about how fun sledding would be with 1/3 gravity!
      CF: Sweeeeet

    2. Re:Canadian Funding rounds by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 3, Interesting

      With 26km of vertical, I'm bringing my skis.

  6. Re:If there is water... IRONIC ftw! by Markvs · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If we ever needed an "Ironic" choice for moderation purposes, this post is it!

    --
    46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
  7. Cue the colonists by ciaohound · · Score: 2, Funny

    Global warming putting a damper on your ski vacations in the Alps or Rockies? Not a problem!

    --
    Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
  8. Martian Lander Snow Angels next? by Zymergy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Surely someone at NASA has thought about making the first extra-terrestrial 'snow angel' with one of their landers? You know, for Kids...
    (Too bad the Hubble will not be able to take a picture of it though... http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/29/1846238 )

    1. Re:Martian Lander Snow Angels next? by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I really wish NASA thought more like this. I'm not literally talking about snow angels, but simply trying to make science more accessible to the public. Hell, some probes don't even have true-color cameras. Don't sacrifice the science, but go for some flash as well.

      --
      I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
    2. Re:Martian Lander Snow Angels next? by camperdave · · Score: 2, Funny

      Flash is for portrait and close subject photography. The probe cameras are all taking landscape shots. Hmmm... well maybe some of the close up cameras on the rovers (the ones that take pictures of the rock abrasion tool scrapings) have lights, but they're probably not flash but LED.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    3. Re:Martian Lander Snow Angels next? by Mr+Z · · Score: 2, Funny

      *blink*

      Ok, how about panache then?

      --
      Program Intellivision!
    4. Re:Martian Lander Snow Angels next? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Funny

      *blink*

      Ok, how about panache then?

      Is that what the "P" setting on my digital camera is for?

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  9. Neat, virga on Mars. by Neanderthal+Ninny · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Rain or snow, like virga, on Mars may not be consisting of water only. Here is the Wikipedia entry on virga:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virga

    Also Universities Space Research Association has some information on virga:
    http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=47776
    They have a excellent NOAA photo of virga.

  10. If we could only just get it to snow in Hell ... by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... then the financial crisis would be solved. Or, at least that was what some Talking Head said on TV. The financial crisis will be over when it snows in Hell.

    Why didn't the damn bastard say "snows on Mars" instead, it could have saved $700 billion!

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  11. Re:the excitement about finding water on mars by filthpickle · · Score: 3, Interesting

    but maybe there is just enough in some places that it can support life...which would mean that there is life on 2 planets in our solar system...which means that it almost certainly exists somewhere else in the galaxy too, which is kinda exciting to me.

  12. H2O Snow? by kmarshallbanana · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Do they know for sure that the snow is H20 snow. Or could it be snow made of something else?

    1. Re:H2O Snow? by aadvancedGIR · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's actually far easier to determine than if it really was water that caused liquid erosion of the surface: all they had to do was to determine the temperature at which it evaporated.

  13. "Dropo, you are the laziest man on Mars!" by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This would be the perfect time for Santa Claus to conquer the Martians.

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  14. h2wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    this dihydrogen-oxide will destroy the ozone layer