http://www.politicalforum.com/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=83 Liquid water runs down canyons and crater walls over the summer months on Mars, according to researchers who say the discovery raises the chances of being home to some form of life. The trickles leave long, dark stains on the Martian terrain that can reach hundreds of metres downhill in the warmer months, before they dry up in the autumn as surface temperatures drop. Images taken from the Mars orbit show cliffs, and the steep walls of valleys and craters, streaked with summertime flows that in the most active spots combine to form intricate fan-like patterns. Scientists are unsure where the water comes from, but it may rise up from underground ice or salty aquifers, or condense out of the thin Martian atmosphere. There is liquid water today on the surface of Mars, Michael Meyer, the lead scientist on Nasas Mars exploration programme, told the Guardian. Because of this, we suspect that it is at least possible to have a habitable environment today. The water flows could point Nasa and other space agencies towards the most promising sites to find life on Mars, and to landing spots for future human missions where water can be collected from a natural supply. Mars is not the dry, arid planet that we thought of in the past, said Nasas Jim Green. Liquid water has been found on Mars. Some of the earliest missions to Mars revealed a planet with a watery past. Pictures beamed back to Earth in the 1970s showed a surface crossed by dried-up rivers and plains once submerged beneath vast ancient lakes. Earlier this year, Nasa unveiled evidence of an ocean that might have covered half of the planets northern hemisphere in the distant past. But occasionally, Mars probes have found hints that the planet might still be wet. Nearly a decade ago, Nasas Mars Global Surveyor took pictures of what appeared to be water bursting through a gully wall and flowing around boulders and other rocky debris. In 2011, the high-resolution camera on Nasas Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured what looked like little streams flowing down crater walls from late spring to early autumn. Not wanting to assume too much, mission scientists named the flows recurring slope lineae or RSL. Researchers have now turned to another instrument on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to analyse the chemistry of the mysterious RSL flows. Lujendra Ojha, of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and his colleagues used a spectrometer on the MRO to look at infrared light reflected off steep rocky walls when the dark streaks had just begun to appear, and when they had grown to full length at the end of the Martian summer. Writing in the journal Nature Geosciences, the team describes how it found infra-red signatures for hydrated salts when the dark flows were present, but none before they had grown. The hydrated salts a mix of chlorates and perchlorates are a smoking gun for the presence of water at all four sites inspected: the Hale, Palikir and Horowitz craters, and a large canyon called Coprates Chasma. These may be the best places to search for extant life near the surface of Mars, said Alfred McEwen, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona and senior author on the study. While it would be very important to find evidence of ancient life, it would be difficult to understand the biology. Current life would be much more informative. The flows only appear when the surface of Mars rises above -23C. The water can run in such frigid conditions because the salts lower the freezing point of water, keeping it liquid far below 0C. The mystery has been, what is permitting this flow? Presumably water, but until now, there has been no spectral signature, Meyer said. From this, we conclude that the RSL are generated by water interacting with perchlorates, forming a brine that flows downhill. John Bridges, a professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester, said the study was fascinating, but might throw up some fresh concerns for space agencies. The flows could be used to find water sources on Mars, making them prime spots to hunt for life, and to land future human missions. But agencies were required to do their utmost to avoid contaminating other planets with microbes from Earth, making wet areas the most difficult to visit. This will give them lots to think about, he said. For now, researchers are focused on learning where the water comes from. Porous rocks under the Martian surface might hold frozen water that melts in the summer months and seeps up to the surface. Another possibility is that highly concentrated saline aquifers are dotted around beneath the surface, not as pools of water, but as saturated volumes of gritty rock. These could cause flows in some areas, but cannot easily explain water seeping down from the top of crater walls. A third possibility, and one favoured by McEwen, is that salts on the Martian surface absorb water from the atmosphere until they have enough to run downhill. The process, known as deliquescence, is seen in the Atacama desert, where the resulting damp patches are the only known place for microbes to live. Its a fascinating piece of work, Bridges said. Our view of Mars is changing, and well be discussing this for a long time to come.
I'm really surprised not more is being made of this. With the exception of actually finding alien life this discovery probably trumps, not that trump, all the discoveries made before it like discovering the structure of DNA, splitting the atom, recombinant DNA technology ec cetera
Stop looking for Water, and look for super valuable resources. If this is done we will colonize Mars and look beyond within a decade.
NASA can go (*)(*)(*)(*) itself. Literally, on cue every 6 months or so they cry "possiblity of life on Mars.......insert recycled reason here...." just to keep themselves relevant. I am old enough to remember them making these constant "there might be life on Mars" announcements back in the 1990s. They are charlatans and nothing but a joke at this point. It is a complete waste of time and money and it a mere shadow of what it was in the 60s and 70s. The Air Force should be put in charge of all things up there from now on. Also, for those who haven't picked up a science book in the last few decades life needs a hell of a lot more than just liquid water. For starters Mars has a virtually nonexistent magnetic field making it highly unlikely for life to form just on that premise alone. Add the hyper thin atmosphere, constant dust storms, extreme temperatures and all sorts of other variables and you get an extremely inhospitable rock.
I'm thinking about making money by selling Mars salt as a seasoning. What would you prefer on your steak, sea salt or Mars salt ? I have to register the trademark name of "Mars Salt" by the end of this week.
Well, this is good news. I'm glad Earth isn't the only place that has water. It's nice to know that Mars is more than just a dusty wasteland. There see NASA? Society didn't end over H[SUB]2[/SUB]O. People can handle it.
Google "NASA possibility of life on Mars" and then order by date. That will answer your question. When you keep announcing the same damn thing over and over for decades then you are in fact nothing but a charlatan.
Life has been found in hostile environments that create energy from other sources besides cellular respiration or photosynthesis. For example, Thermus aquatis… Thermus aquatis is an organism first discovered in hot springs at yellowstone national park. It thrives at 70 degrees celsius or 158 degrees fairenheit but can survive at temperatures of 80 degrees celsius or 176 degrees fairenheit. It’s a chemotroph it performs chemosynthesis to obtain food. Chemoautotrophs use inorganic energy sources, such as hydrogen sulfide, elemental sulfur, ferrous iron, molecular hydrogen and ammonia. The harsher an environment the more novel the chemicals that can be derived from it. For example, TAQ polymerase, DNA ligase, alkaline phosphatase, NADH oxidase, isocitrate dehydrogenase. Amylomaltase ec cetera With novel chemicals you can create new things that benefit humanity such as the polymerase chain reaction which is possible bcs of the TAQ polymerase from Thermus aquatis that can add nucleotides to DNA at high temperatures essentially producing limitless copies of a particular DNA sequence
The bad news is they are only talking about a couple of Olympic sized pools worth, but then again it is a major find.
No (*)(*)(*)(*) Sherlock. Seriously what the hell are you even going on about? You do realize that this is a forum full of opinions don't you. I think your mom dropped you on your head a few too many times.
Colonizing Mars is a wonderful idea but which country to colonize it? I often think if Mars is found inhabitable this will be a great leap for humanity since our earth is going to be unlivable since we are polluting it everyday with emissions of poisonous gases and making massive use of junks. We are polluting rivers and lakes with industrial junks and one day our earth will be totally unlivable and as such colonizing Mars is a great idea and a great hope. I believe in science and science is enabling humans to live comfortably and our survival is much ascertained by scientific discoveries and inventions.
You literally just said I stated an opinion. This is a forum, where people post opinions. The substance is that you are attempting to appear intelligent by stating the obvious making you Captain Obvious, oh and that is an opinion since you probably missed it.
Water is a pretty valuable resource for colonizing another planet. Gotta have that before you can start digging into the rest.
It is a forum for discussion where opinions are shared but also questioned. This isn't a Today Show opinion poll for Al Roker to mention while he does the weather.
Time for another probe. This thing needs to get to one of the water sources, and drill. If it finds a good source of water, we can colonize. It doesn't have to be "good" water. Cleaning it up is no big deal. From water, we can make Oxygen to breathe, and Hydrogen for fuel. The Mars station would have to be an International effort, just as with the ISS. Water is the whole deal maker. Every month, one of the allied Nations would send a support packet, along with critical components that would make the Mars station (eventually) self sustaining and expanding. It's a good time to move human colonization off planet, because we're on the brink of blowing this place to smithereens.
I am missing your point. - - - Updated - - - Jupiters moons would be a much better choice at least once the distance problem is solved. Jupiter has a massive field which protects them from solar radiation and there is actual liquid water on a few of them already.
Probably more sensible, since we'd prob. have to go underground anyway in either place. I heard that we're working on nuclear engines again. We had one back during the JFK admin., but it had a problem with puking the core out into the desert. That was developing 17,000 lbs. of thrust.
They keep saying how cold it is there, so even if human beings could get there how would they be able to survive in such extremes? Surely they'd need to build infrastructures first, which of course would mean transporting loads and loads of the raw materials first (concrete, timber and steel?), so how would all that be transported across galaxies without falling down black holes? Anyone?? Incidentally they were talking on the BBC's flagship politics and current affairs programme this morning, and some in the know said we might originally have come here from Mars. Maybe it got too cold - think 'climate change'? - so we had to find somewhere else, and got lucky. So many questions, so few answers!
Transport of materials would not be an issue as they would be manufactured on site. The initial habitation would be underground and the "We came from Mars" idea involves the first Bacteria/Virus material that evolved into current lifeforms.
