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Scientists Have Spotted the Signs of Flowing Water On Mars
New submitter universe520 writes: Using neat imaging technology that allows them to determine the chemical compound of a substance by looking at the light reflected from it, scientists have spotted the traces of flowing water on Mars. By looking at the dark streaks on some photos of Mars, Lujendra Ojha from Georgia Tech has found compounds that are made in liquid water—meaning that water may be trickling down those streaks when the climate is just right.
From the linked Economist piece: Details remain to be worked out, including where the water in question originates. Possibly, it derives from subsurface ice. Or it might condense out of Mars’s thin, dry atmosphere. Wherever it does come from, though, the amounts in question are modest in the extreme. But even modest amounts of water are intriguing to biologists. If Martians evolved during their planet’s earlier, wetter phase, the continued presence of water means it is just about possible that a few especially hardy types have survived until the present day—clinging on in dwindling pockets of dampness in the way that some “extremophile” bacteria on Earth are able to live in cold, salty and arid environments.
Using neat imaging technology that allows them to determine the chemical compound of a substance by looking at the light reflected from it
The author has never heard the term "spectroscopy?"
Considering even if there is life on Mars it's going to be a long long way from Little Green Men I don't see why anyone except creationists would flip their shit. And even then, creationists and cdesignproponentists will ignore it and do the fingers in ears na-na-na thing. So nothing really would change except smart people would redefine their picture of the universe.
Even at that, considering how much material Earth and Mars have exchanged over billions of years, it wouldn't even really be that amazing for single cell life to be on Mars, especially if it has a common origin with life on Earth. If we proved beyond doubt that it had an independent origin, THAT would be big.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
I would encourage everybody reading the parent post to actually read the article. Just take a look at the image at the top of the article: the overwhelming majority of the planet is heating up, setting all sorts of records, except for one small part of the ocean. And that part of the ocean is getting colder (it appears) because of all the melting fresh water (because the planet is heating up), which is screwing up a major circulation current. And _that_ is their evidence that global warming is a lie: taking a small part of evidence out of context, wilfully mis-interpreting it, and ignoring almost all the rest of the evidence.
The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.
People who resort to hyperbole are worse than Hitler.
For the sake of all that is Holy, don't take those Answers in Genesis wackos as speaking for all Christians. Science and Christianity are compatible.
Uh, no. They are not. More generally, science and religious dogma are incompatible. One is a rational approach to knowledge and understanding, and the other is a collection of text purporting to be of divine origin and authority. Those two things are pretty much polar opposites. Now, if you want to argue that "scripture" should only be taken as metaphor... yada yada yada, OK. Fine. Please get all your Christian buddies to do so and then we'll talk. Until then, I will, quite accurately, place most of them in the "picks and chooses the 'word of God' to suit their need" group.