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Mars Gullies Show Water Once Flowed
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A new analysis of puzzling gullylike features on Mars offers further evidence that water flowed on the Red Planet's surface, perhaps as recently as several hundred thousand years ago. The findings bolster the case that melting snow from a departed Martian ice age carved these gullies, rather than shifting sands or other 'dry' phenomena."
That is the real question. Is the atmosphere too thin to keep the water there or did it all freeze or go underground. Do we (earth) lose water as well?
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didn't know global warming's reach had extended to Mars.
Sent from your iPad.
Would be excited to hear if underground water is found. The ice caps probably don't have the volume to fill what potentially could have been an Earth-ish looking planet.
Haven't they reported this a dozen times over the last decade? Every time they have evidence of water flowing on Mars, they act like it's a new discovery. We get it already. Nothing to see. Move along.
Dick wang?
That's actual size, he traced his own.
Would be excited to hear if underground water is found. The ice caps probably don't have the volume to fill what potentially could have been an Earth-ish looking planet.
They wouldn't need to. Mars has only about a third of the surface area of Earth. Which makes for a nice coincidence as we both have roughly the same available landmass!
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
What the heck does water on Mars have to do with Battling the Evil RIAA???
Get back to work, Ray!!! ;-)
Would be excited to hear if underground water is found. The ice caps probably don't have the volume to fill what potentially could have been an Earth-ish looking planet.
They wouldn't need to. Mars has only about a third of the surface area of Earth. Which makes for a nice coincidence as we both have roughly the same available landmass!
Uh, no, not if the ice caps melted and created anything resembling an ocean on Mars. If water flowed on Mars again they would no longer have roughly the same available landmass.
Hi NYCL,
the summary (TFS) should have been written as:
"Lest there be any doubt that Brown University's Planetary Geosciences Group graduates Samuel C. Schon, James W. Head, and Caleb I. Fassett, study authors, NASA Martian crater dating, really do 'get it' about the presence of water in recent Mars history, all such doubt should be removed by the paper his team just released (http://geology.gsapubs.org - March 2009, either slashdotted or slow). It shows the Martian gully system is craterless, possibly as young as 1.25 million years old (see bottom right of photo). In the paper lead study author Schon spells out, in the clearest possible terms so that there can be no misunderstanding, that at the extraordinary HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ...
More like 70 to 80 thousand. The surviving Hain probably would have traveled to our world to escape the cataclysm there on the fourth planet.
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
Perhaps there's some meta humour I'm missing, but what is the point of getting the first post and why do people try to do it?
Since they get modded into oblivion hardly anyone is going to read it. But if you take the time to make a decent post instead, you'll probably get modded up for it. For an attention whore that should be fairly appealing.
I guess NewYorkCountryLawyer has finally fallen completely under Slashdot's influence. He is now discussing water on Mars. This lawyer has become a certifiable geek.
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Seems like every other week or so, there's a new article about a new study, or new findings by a new probe, orbiter, or rover, which strongly suggests that Mars once had liquid water and currently has water ice. It's become banal.
--- "When you gotta do something wrong. You gotta do it right. (Fighter)"
Couldn't it have been some other liquid with a similar viscosity and other similar physical properties?
It's one of those "because it's there" kind of things. I've had a few first posts myself, but they were actually relevant and modified to +5 funny and +5 insightful. I don't know how I beat the frothy mob of ACs to the punch, because I don't actually try for first posts. I just lucked out.
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I am waiting for the discovery of intelligent life on Earth.
Ah, but the search for intelligent life relies on searching radio and television signals!
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
It's an ancient slashdot trolling tradition, active on segfault before that. For some time trolling groups like the GNAA had scripts set up to auto-fp, actually getting a GNAA fp is one of the requirements for membership (if they're still active.)
You're correct that the new mod system renders it fairly pointless, but hey. Personally I liked the greater anarchy of those good old days, I do a fr1sT ps0t!!1one! if the opportunity arises as a sort of tribute. Think about your breathing. Your brain usually takes care of breathing FOR you, but whenever you remember this, YOU MUST MANUALLY BREATH! If you don't, you will DIE.
...on a planet as ancient and rusty as its business models?
;-)
After all, the gullies were probably caused by "sue-one's-own-customers", cease&desist letters, subpoenas and other dry phenomena.
And the planet's red color is presumably from gigatons of decaying hardware generations rendered obsolete by ever-changing DRMs that brought down the Martian culture and civilization...
wait a second, don't we already know that water was there. if it was there don't you think it was moving!!
Its not my fault, someone put a wall in my way.
No more Mars/water stories. Water is/was on Mars. We get it. Enough already!
It is like Sharpe explaining what it is like to lead an infantry assault against a fortified French garrison and that being the first person inside the wall breach, well, your life expectancy isn't too great, but one does this for King, Country, and Glory of it all.
What about extremely large debris-covered glaciers? Would that do the trick for you?
The SHARAD instrument (really cool, 15Mhz radar) has shown conclusive evidence of ice cores in features called lobate debris aprons. These debris-covered features have probably been stable for ~100 Ma.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/322/5905/1235
abstract: Lobate features abutting massifs and escarpments in the middle latitudes of Mars have been recognized in images for decades, but their true nature has been controversial, with hypotheses of origin such as ice-lubricated debris flows or glaciers covered by a layer of surface debris. These models imply an ice content ranging from minor and interstitial to massive and relatively pure. Soundings of these deposits in the eastern Hellas region by the Shallow Radar on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal radar properties entirely consistent with massive water ice, supporting the debris-covered glacier hypothesis. The results imply that these glaciers formed in a previous climate conducive to glaciation at middle latitudes. Such features may collectively represent the most extensive nonpolar ice yet recognized on Mars.
On earth, water cannot totally sink into the planet since at some point it becomes so hot that it boils and returns to the surface. On Mars, the planet cooled down so much that most of the water sank into the rock and remains underground. So Mars likely has lots of underground (salty) water, but not much on the surface. Same on the Moon. If one would drill on the Moon, there would likely be water (and hydrocarbons) under ground.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Being a guy named Dick Wang, I wouldn't really be surprised...