« previous next »
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Liquid Water Recently Seen on Mars?  (Read 1284 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Wretched Excess

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15284
  • Reputation: +485/-84
  • Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happy Hour
Liquid Water Recently Seen on Mars?
« on: February 20, 2009, 05:56:52 PM »

wow.  this is a very big deal. :o

Quote
Liquid Water Recently Seen on Mars?

Strange globs seen on the landing strut of the Phoenix Mars lander could be the first proof that modern Mars hosts liquid water, a new paper reports.

Images from the robotic craft show what appear to be liquid droplets growing, merging, and dripping on the lander's leg over the course of a Martian month.

Phoenix landed near Mars's north pole last May, and several "self portraits" taken to assess the craft's health show material spattered on the legs.

This substance is probably saline mud that splashed up as the craft landed, study leader and Phoenix co-investigator Nilton Renno of the University of Michigan told National Geographic News.

Salt in the mud then absorbed water vapor from the atmosphere, forming the watery drops, Renno said.

The water can stay liquid even in the frigid Martian arctic because it contains a high amount of perchlorates, a salt "with properties like the antifreeze used to melt snow here in Michigan," said Renno, who will present the work next month at the 40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Finding liquid water under these conditions carries possible implications for Mars's habitability, the scientists say.

Much More
Logged

Offline RightCoast

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3438
  • Reputation: +185/-24
  • Semper Fi means more than most will ever know
Re: Liquid Water Recently Seen on Mars?
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2009, 06:04:01 PM »
WILL THIS GLOBAL WARMING NEVER END?!?!?!?!!?1212121212
Logged
nine eleven is a car
nine one one is an emergency service
September 11, 2001 was an attack
Never Forget, or Minimize.

Offline Thor

  • General Ne'er Do Well, Troublemaker & All Around Meanie!!
  • In Memoriam
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13103
  • Reputation: +362/-297
  • Native Texan & US Navy (ret)
Re: Liquid Water Recently Seen on Mars?
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2009, 09:05:49 AM »
I've read that Mars is warming along with the Earth. Mainly due to the increased solar flare activity. That is why I don't believe in man-made global warming.
Logged
"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."- IBID

I AM your General Ne'er Do Well, Troublemaker & All Around Meanie!!

"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated."-Thomas Jefferson

Offline Crazy Horse

  • Army 0 Navy 34
  • Topic Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5571
  • Reputation: +236/-143
  • Sex, Booze and Bacon Minion
Re: Liquid Water Recently Seen on Mars?
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2009, 09:15:10 AM »
Quote from: Thor on February 21, 2009, 09:05:49 AM
I've read that Mars is warming along with the Earth. Mainly due to the increased solar flare activity. That is why I don't believe in man-made global warming.

Silly brownshoe............Ever since the Viking landers we humans have been spewing greenhouse gases.  now for the past 10 years these Haliburton built HUMMER rovers have been strolling around Mars causing the planet to warm
Logged
Quote from: Rebel on July 29, 2008, 06:11:02 PM
You got off your ass, now get your wife off her back.

Offline jinxmchue

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3841
  • Reputation: +114/-26
Re: Liquid Water Recently Seen on Mars?
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2009, 09:20:02 AM »
It's actually snot from a Martian that sneezed on the lander.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »