Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mysterious Martian Gouges Carved By Sand-surfing Dry Ice

Posted by Soulskill on from the Iceman's-vacation-home dept.

sciencehabit writes: After the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter began beaming back close-up images of the Red Planet, researchers spotted peculiar features along the slopes of dunes: long, sharply defined grooves that seem to appear and disappear seasonally. They look like trails left behind by tumbling boulders, but rocks never appear in the sunken pits at the trail ends. Researchers initially took these gullies as signs of flowing liquid water, but a new model suggests they're the result of sand-surfing dry ice that breaks off from the crests of dunes and skids down slopes. This is no ordinary tumble — according to the model, the bases of the chunks are continually sublimating, resulting in a hovercraftlike motion that gouges the dune while propelling the ice down slopes.

4 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. and on earth... by swell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This reminds me of the recent controversy over the mysterious sailing stones of Death Valley California.
    http://worldgeographicchannel....

    Many attempted to explain the phenomena but only a cleverly timed photographic sequence was able to explain the relatively simple process by which stones moved across the sand. Not everything on earth and in the heavens is beyond human comprehension.

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
  2. TL;DR by XNormal · · Score: 4, Informative

    NASA JPL video.

    --
    Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
  3. Re:Yawn. by pupsocket · · Score: 5, Funny

    In what sense does a camera on wheels even remotely count as human?

    Remotely.

  4. How to colonize Mars by Required+Snark · · Score: 3, Funny
    The ultimate bottleneck on human travel to Mars is funding, not technology. Given an Apollo program approach the time could easily be cut in half from current 20 to 30 year estimate.

    Since this is a public relations issue, what's needed is a rabid single issue voting block that can sway elections and spark fear in the hearts of elected officials, like the NRA. It helps if the issue can be simplified to a simple "for us or against us" mentality.

    So here's the pitch:

    Surf a Martian Sand Dune on a Block of DRY ICE in 1/3rd Gravity!!!

    Every extreme sport enthusiast will go nuts. And if they are anything, they are fanatics. That's why it's called extreme sports. So there is an already existing community that can be recruited and is crazy enough to focus on only one thing. Additionally, the demographic is alienated from politics, so they don't have to be recruited from existing voter blocks.

    I see a Kickstarter campaign, and possible participation from Red Bull and GoPro. What could possibly go wrong?

    --
    Why is Snark Required?