Water flows on Martian surface!!!

stinky · #1 07-12-2006, 08:24 AM

Perhaps one of the most important discoveries of all time...

Nasa thinks they have evidence for the flowing of water recently on Mars.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ma...-20061206.html

It'll be interesting to see how this develops, ther undoubtedly will be counter theories, but the news it stirs will be great for exploration. I'm just amazed that it's taken so long to get to the news.

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #2 07-12-2006, 09:10 AM

The high-resolution images are certainly compelling evidence huh! Very interesting indeed.

ving (David) · #3 07-12-2006, 09:44 AM

interesting. the pictures are great but is it really water or was it a tremor related landslide or something similar?

thanks for the article.

robagar · #4 07-12-2006, 09:59 AM

wow, that is big news! If these flows indicate liquid groundwater, that has huge possibilities.

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #5 07-12-2006, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ving

interesting. the pictures are great but is it really water or was it a tremor related landslide or something similar?

thanks for the article.

Thought of that too. The material could be an ultra-low viscosity powder fluid - like quicksand.

robagar · #6 07-12-2006, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omaroo

The material could be an ultra-low viscosity powder fluid - like quicksand.

true... is that more likely given the very dry, thin atmosphere environment do you reckon?

robagar · #7 07-12-2006, 10:11 AM

.. although the article points out that if they were dust flows, they would likely be dark like the rover tracks. The brightness suggests frost, or possibly salt crust concentrated by liquid water. Very interesting.

Doug · #8 07-12-2006, 06:19 PM

Well either way NASA can expect more money.
It just doesn't look like a water flow. If water started at the top and flowed down the crater wall till all was absorbed, wouldn't it get thinner as it goes or is Martian water different from Terra water?

Doug · #9 07-12-2006, 06:26 PM

Looking at the 2 images, shows a remarkable similarity with the shadows. What are the odds of imaging at the same crater area, the same time of day and the same part of the Martian year?
cheers,
(a skeptical) Doug

ving (David) · #10 07-12-2006, 06:32 PM

another thought doug. the shaddows are different in each image. is it posible that the "flow" is a lighting effect?

Doug · #11 07-12-2006, 11:18 PM

Who knows? Looking closely at the older image you can see spots of the same lighter shading all over the place. What NASA is all of a sweat about might simply be an area of frost that has not evaporated as much as in the earlier image.
Heck if it means so much to the poor devils to have hot & cold r unning water on Mars, why not just send a water tanker a team of Plumbers up there?

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #12 07-12-2006, 11:57 PM

Even if it isn't anything truly significant, it should be - for types like us who want to see Mars explored further. If this is the catalyst that gets the public and the US Congress all excited, and a manned Mars mission is the result, then ripper!

ispom · #13 08-12-2006, 03:43 AM

It looks like a waterfall:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/images/pia09027.html

one should be able to determine with a spectrometer from the orbit, whether it concerns water, or merely a sandy fata morgana

iceman (Mike) · #14 08-12-2006, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Even if it isn't anything truly significant, it should be - for types like us who want to see Mars explored further. If this is the catalyst that gets the public and the US Congress all excited, and a manned Mars mission is the result, then ripper!

Good point right there.. It was the discovery of so called "fossils" in a Martian Meteorite back in 1996 that triggered more funding for Mars lander/rover missions, which eventually led to the current MER rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.

I'll try and find out more.. I have a contact who might have some interesting theories on this.

Doug · #15 08-12-2006, 07:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Even if it isn't anything truly significant, it should be - for types like us who want to see Mars explored further. If this is the catalyst that gets the public and the US Congress all excited, and a manned Mars mission is the result, then ripper!

G'day Chris, this is the point I hinted at back in post #8.
And as Mike has reflected, the now (in)famous martian meteorite certainly invigorated the US senate funding. That is what is needed, VISION + $$$$$

JohnH · #16 08-12-2006, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug

Well either way NASA can expect more money.
It just doesn't look like a water flow. If water started at the top and flowed down the crater wall till all was absorbed, wouldn't it get thinner as it goes or is Martian water different from Terra water?

The water is the same - but the pressure and temp in the environment are different - the water will boil or freeze as it flows....but the formations are analagous to those created by flash floods - the water is constricted to a narrow channel where the slope is steap and forms a delta on the gentler slope when it slows and can no longer carry the embedded materials...the water cannot be absorbed either if it is fast flowing...

Looks good to me...

Doug · #17 08-12-2006, 01:14 PM

John! we seem to have a difference of opinion here. There is only one thing for it. What say we invite NASA to fast track an expedition to Mars and give us free RETURN boarding passes.
Loser shouts a schooner of Martian Adam's Ale.

Doug

JohnH · #18 08-12-2006, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug

John! we seem to have a difference of opinion here. There is only one thing for it. What say we invite NASA to fast track an expedition to Mars and give us free RETURN boarding passes.
Loser shouts a schooner of Martian Adam's Ale.

Doug

Your on, in fact as it is Friday lunchtime and I am a pommy I'm off to the pub for some practice....

First Pub on Mars? The RED Lion of course.

Serves Red Dragon beer btw - warm flat English beer would be the go in the cold low pressure environment...

iceman (Mike) · #19 10-12-2006, 11:13 AM

I had the opportunity to interview Steve Squyres, the PI on the MER mission and I asked him about this recent announcement of new water on Mars..

Check out his answers and the full interview, here:

IceInSpace Interviews Prof. Steve Squyres

ispom · #20 10-12-2006, 08:40 PM

some hundred years ago the high mountains (alps for example) applied as places, which one should avoid,
everyone was glad, if he had to cross a montain pass
and overcome it without loss,
a weather stationon at the peak of “Zugspitze” (the highest peak in Germany),
a hotel on the Grossglockner (highest peak of Austria),
a souvenirshop in the midst of the Rhone-glacier in Switzerland,
that were at that time identical "pipedreams", phantasms
like today comparable Mars objects....
everybody at that time would hav asked "which to want we on the summit?"
and in some hundred years research stations, supply installations and also souvenir shops on Mars become as a matterofcourse, self evident...

into the future looking greetings from Ispom