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"Definitive Evidence" For Ancient Lake On Mars

TheSync writes "Eurekalert reports on 'definitive evidence' for an ancient water lake on Mars. A UC Boulder research team has discovered evidence of a shoreline on Mars of a 3 billion year-old lake 80 square miles in area and 1,500 feet deep (roughly the equivalent of Lake Champlain). Images came from the HiRISE instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Water carved a 30-mile-long canyon that opened up into a valley and forming a large delta during a time when Mars is generally believed to have been cold and dry. The lack of additional, lower shorelines, shows that the lake dried up very quickly. Of particular interest are the deltas adjacent to the lake. On Earth, deltas rapidly bury organic carbon and other biomarkers of life, making the Martian lake bed and delta a prime target for future searches for past life on the planet."

10 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Definite Evidence by MadLad · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Definitive (adj.): supplying or being a final or conclusive settlement.

    Which proves beyond doubt that of which it is evidential.

    As opposed to ye olde ordinarey evidence which merely contributes to the probability that something is likely.

  2. Re:Definite Evidence by davidangel · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Um, why not just call it "PROOF" then?

  3. evidence of lake != lake of water by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So where is the evidence that the lake was made of water? could be any liquid really... epic fail

  4. Re:Definite Evidence by Mistshadow2k4 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because "proof" doesn't sound as self-important as "definitive evidence", silly! Don't you know that scientists need to use longer words and phrases than the rest of us to be taken seriously?

    --
    I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
  5. Re:If it's definitive evidence... by Robin47 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because it's 'alleged' definitive evidence?

  6. Re:Definite Evidence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Hmm? Proof is stronger than definitive evidence. I doubt any scientist would say proof without a real sample of water. Scientists like to use hedge words, because they are accurate and because you know you're always partly wrong.

  7. Re:If it's definitive evidence... by Bakkster · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because it's a direct quote "from the article".

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  8. Re:It is CU Boulder not UC Boulder by 2short · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "It's called Colorado University, not the University of Colorado, so it would be kind of dumb to flip the acronym. "

    Almost as dumb as correcting people about things you have no knowledge of and are, as it happens, wrong about. The University of Colorado goes by CU. Colorado State University goes by CSU. "Colorado University" doesn't go by anything, because it only exists in your head.

  9. Funny; at this point, I would rather NOT find life by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Insightful

    there. The reason is because Mars CAN be terriformed by plummitting a a few ammonia based asteroids from further out as well as a couple of ice based asteroids. It obviously would not occur overnight, but, once vasmir occurs, I would not be surprised to see us sending exploratory missions to locate resources on these asteroids. BUT, once life is discovered there, the west will not proceed with that (though I suspect more than a few other countries would push for it regardless of the life).

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    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  10. Re:NASA has been hiding life on Mars for years by geekoid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ignoring the large glaring errors, let's look at the practicality of the situation:
    If NASA had proof of intellegent life on MArs, they would get a blank check to get there.
    I is in NASAs best interest to NOT have a cover-up.
    It's also in the governments best interest not to ahve a cover up.

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    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect