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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."

24 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Re:NASA has been hiding life on Mars for years by ammit · · Score: 2, Informative

    403 Permission Denied You do not have permission for this request /_articles/03-08-2004/images/Crinoid%20Martian%20Fossil.jpg Yes that does look suspiciously like a shrimp....

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  2. Re:NASA has been hiding life on Mars for years by dtml-try+MyNick · · Score: 2, Funny

    403 Permission Denied

    And a thorough job they did...

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    Life starts at the end of your comfort zone.
  3. Can we send rovers there please? by CosmicRabbit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So knowing how on Earth water and life are so intrinsically associated, this seems like the perfect spot to send a future rover mission. In the past we got some inconclusive results from biochemical analysis of the soil in more arid zones of the red planet. Perhaps on this spot we can be more lucky?
    Also, the proof of early existence of liquid water on the planet also hints at a denser atmosphere and warmer temperatures on those times. This is very promising!

    1. Re:Can we send rovers there please? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I still think that the best spot to send a rover to would be the most hazardous of all places to do so. That is to the bottom of the deepest part of the largest and deepest canyon on the planet, the Valles Marinaris. This canyon is deeper than the Earth's Grand Canyon. It is known that the bottom of the Grand Canyon has a microclimate all its own, wetter and warmer considerably than that of the plateau surface above it. At six miles deep, consider our own planet. The atmosphere on our planet has a pressure density at six miles above it that is not much thicker than that of Mars at it's 'mean sea level'. That is why climbers of Mt Everest need oxygen to survive for long, and at 29000 feet this is thousands of feet LOWER than the elevation distance from floor to rim of the Valles Marinaris! For this reason I state that pressure density of the Martian atmosphere at the bottom of the Valles Marinaris will be more dense than any other place on that planet. Add to this that winds on the surface of the plateau above probably have limited interchange with the air on the bottom and the inescapable conclusion is that even the composition of the atmosphere on the bottom may be quite different from that outside the canyon. If there is any surface water or flowing water on the planet it will very likely be in sheltered pools on the bottom of the Valles Marinaris. If there is refugee life on this rock, that is also the most likely place. Human visitors should be warned, however, that life even here may be ravenously hungry so should take precautions. That said, this valley should also be protected from contamination from visiting spacecraft lest the bugs it finds be our own. That further said, it is possible that assuming panspermia of sorts, life here could have originated on Mars in the first place, especially seeing Earth itself underwent several episodes of global glaciation like Mars today. How do we know that during our own global glaciation that we were not a 'red planet' as well, with red dust from volcanic eruptions covering our own water ice. So their bugs may look like OUR bugs and fool at least some of our scientists for honest reasons into thinking that contamination had taken place.....somehow. Other less scrupulous 'patho-skeptik' so called 'scientists' would probably take the same position knowing the opposite to be true for more sinister reasons: "If life was found outside Earth, then religion ON Earth would maybe fail under logical testing and cause religious wars so better to deny the fact as long as plausible deniability exists....these individuals, knowing the truth, would fiercely oppose any serious Martian exploration; or "If life was found indigenous to Mars, then this would be against the 'prevailing so called wisdom or party line' that establishment scientists were supposed to follow if they wanted to keep their careers"! Either one of these kinds of so-called 'scientists', and there are probably others that I have not thought of, in great numbers or influence could and would try to set us back progresswise for many years. They have done so before, and religious of various stripes have usually been at the bottom of it.

  4. Re:NASA has been hiding life on Mars for years by miowpurr · · Score: 3, Informative

    Um, no. Read this http://drydredgers.org/martian_crinoid.htm to see the photo.

  5. Re:Sweet pics by dotancohen · · Score: 5, Informative

    Seriously, wouldn't it be neat if there was new evidence of water on Mars based on hi res pictures and someone would actually link to said pictures? That would be neat-o.

    Don't get me wrong, Defrosting Spots Over Polygonal Ground sounds interesting and all, but...

    Here you go, on the NASA site since 2003:
    http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/nov/HQ_03364_MGS_delta.html

    --
    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  6. 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.

  7. Blah blah blah, wake me when they prove it. by BlueKitties · · Score: 5, Funny

    I used to get excited about all of these Mars jazz... when I was a kid; after every other Popsci mag I used to read blathered about new evidence for life/water/robots on Mars, I started getting tired of it. Years later, they're still blathering about it; frankly, I'm tired of it. Come back when you splash land a rover into a giant pool of water which is then eaten by Mars sharks, then I'll be more enthushtaotiblastic.

    --
    "Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad." [Ecclesiastes 7:3]
    1. Re:Blah blah blah, wake me when they prove it. by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

      then I'll be more enthushtaotiblastic

      Dude, you're bitching about the fact we haven't encountered Martians yet, but you're speaking their fucking language.

      Gorblobberschnart, man, relax... the martians are there, "they" just don't want us to know about them. ("They" meaning various 3- and 4-letter government agencies).

      --
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    2. Re:Blah blah blah, wake me when they prove it. by catbertscousin · · Score: 2, Funny

      then I'll be more enthushtaotiblastic

      Dude, you're bitching about the fact we haven't encountered Martians yet, but you're speaking their fucking language.

      Not only that, but he left out the second 'e'. "Enthushtaotibelastic" means excited and interested, "enthushtaotiblastic" is a form of shark sushi. Honestly, people, this is first year stuff in Kiiwohl School. Grammar matters on Mars - if he'd said that to the local Gringkel, he'd be a steaming plate of enthushtaotiblastic now.

      --
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  8. 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

    1. Re:evidence of lake != lake of water by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Back in college I used to dream of an ethanol lake. I bet heaven has one.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  9. If it's definitive evidence... by HuckleCom · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why are we still putting quotes around 'definitive evidence' ?

    1. Re:If it's definitive evidence... by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Funny

      I 'don't know'.

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    2. Re:If it's definitive evidence... by Robin47 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because it's 'alleged' definitive evidence?

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

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

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  10. 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?

    --
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  11. Whose standard would that be? by gbutler69 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh, you mean, "Standard Units" for scientists or countries that don't use the imperial system.

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  12. UC Boulder by bobs2pacsvegaswirled · · Score: 3, Informative

    All of the original Big-8 schools without a "state" in their names reverse their initials. Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma are CU, MU, NU, and OU respectively. There is no UC Boulder. It is CU Boulder.

  13. Re:Lake champlain? by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I believe they were talking about volume, though they didn't specify.

    Champlain is 30% larger than this lake by volume, but this lake is about 80% the size of Champlain by volume. Using the second figure, with a bit of hyperbole you can say "roughly equivalent". They like to do that kind of crap when describing stuff on Mars and other earth-ish sized solar and planetary satellites.

    Not the most accurate description, but it gives a rough idea of volume at least.

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  14. Re:Sweet pics by Locke2005 · · Score: 4, Funny
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    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  15. 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.

  16. 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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  17. 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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