Mars may have salty water

[Curt James]

CNN/blogs: Light Years

Mars may have salty water

Posted: August 4, 2011, 2:34 pm ET

Scientists have found new evidence for possible saltwater flows on Mars. The discovery was announced at a NASA news conference Thursday.

Alfred McEwen, lead author of the Science study showing these observations, and his team have been observing Mars using the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. His team has identified features on some slopes of the planet that appear to fade in the winter and come back in the spring.

These flows occur near the Mars equator, where temperatures would be suitable for liquid water. The water is expected to be salty because previous study of the planet has shown that its surface is salty, so any water that flows in the subsurface is going to be salty.

Seven such sites on the planet have been confirmed, with 20 more possible.

The study does not prove water exists, but identifies it as the best explanation.

???I think it???s going to be laboratory experiments on Earth that give us the best confirmation or refutation,??? McEwen said.

Posted by: CNN's Elizabeth Landau

1 Comment

1. Reed
August 4th, 2011 2:42 pm ET

More proof that NASA needs political and public support. Cool stuff, guys.

From CNN/blogs

 

[Pittsburgh63]

Interesting

 

[smaj210]

damn, just as nasa closes, think the commies are going to get mars! lol

 

[Curt James]

Didn't the U.S. commit to a Mars trip by 2020?

"In 2010, a new bill was signed allowing for a manned Mars mission by the 2030s," according to a Wikipedia entry. Reference: NASA in Transition as Congress OKs New Direction | Space.com

"Congress passed a new NASA authorization bill this week, just in time for the space agency's birthday tomorrow (Oct. 1). But the space agency's anniversary finds a NASA in the middle of shifting gears to embrace a new exploration regime.

The bill, approved by the House last night (Sept. 29), authorizes NASA to embark on a new direction outlined by President Obama, and to abandon old plans laid out by the Bush administration to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. Instead, NASA will now aim to send explorers to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s."

Source: NASA in Transition as Congress OKs New Direction | Space.com

See also: Mars Exploration Program: Program & Missions
Exploration of Mars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Curt James]

YouTube Video

 

[oufinny]

The country is broke as fuck, we can barely pay social security, the military and all the losers that we seem to support on welfare. The moon is a pipe dream until we get our house in order, let alone mars.

 

[SloppyJ]

Even if it has water, the temperature flucuation is crazy.

 

[GUNRACK]

The country is broke as fuck, we can barely pay social security, the military and all the losers that we seem to support on welfare. The moon is a pipe dream until we get our house in order, let alone mars.

Exactly, who gives a shit about Mars. Our country has bigger things to worry about

 

[IronAddict]

That's a very good point about getting our house in order first.

I had known there was water on Mars for quite some time now. I even bet there's more water on other planets, too.

 

[maniclion]

damn, just as nasa closes, think the commies are going to get mars! lol

NASA didn't close they just retired the shuttle program. They need to start working on the Space Elevator like the one I have them using to build the modular saucer shaped Galactic Navigator in my book about a failed extra-planetary mission...

 

[Curt James]

They need to fake some alien invasion so the world unites against some imaginary villain.

Wasn't there a movie about this already?

Move the war money over to the space exploration column.

I mean, hell, it's 2011. I was expecting...

YouTube Video

and...

YouTube Video

by now!

 

[bandaidwoman]

The fact that there is opal on mars means at one point it had significant water. Opalization requires H20. Mar's gravitational field is so weak we can never terraform with O2 since the O2 molecule is so light it will escape the Mar's gravitational field. ( that was my beef with Total Recall, Mar's atmosphere can never hold O2 molecules for us to breath.( that and it takes electrolysis of water, not melting of ice, to release significant O2 from water). Even if it could hold oxygen molecules ( say we artificially increase the Mar's gravitational field five times) the lack of electromagnetic fields means the solar flares and winds will just burn it up and rip it off in a matter of time. ( we are lucky our ignitable atmosphere has not suffered the same fate due to our electromagnetic protection.) But pursuit of knowledge is still a worthwhile endevour. We built the Hubble telescope to look for black holes and already its technology has generated significant profitable offshoots ( one example is the digital mammography, directly due to Hubble). Nondirected scientific reasearch is still the best.

 

[oufinny]

The fact that there is opal on mars means at one point it had significant water. Opalization requires H20. Mar's gravitational field is so weak we can never terraform with O2 since the O2 molecule is so light it will escape the Mar's gravitational field. ( that was my beef with Total Recall, Mar's atmosphere can never hold O2 molecules for us to breath.( that and it takes electrolysis of water, not melting of ice, to release significant O2 from water). Even if it could hold oxygen molecules ( say we artificially increase the Mar's gravitational field five times) the lack of electromagnetic fields means the solar flares and winds will just burn it up and rip it off in a matter of time. ( we are lucky our ignitable atmosphere has not suffered the same fate due to our electromagnetic protection.) But pursuit of knowledge is still a worthwhile endevour. We built the Hubble telescope to look for black holes and already its technology has generated significant profitable offshoots ( one example is the digital mammography, directly due to Hubble). Nondirected scientific reasearch is still the best.

Nice to hear some clarification, I always thought that was the case but I was stoned through college astronomy most days since it was quite the experience so my memory is quite fuzzy on such things.

 

[myCATpowerlifts]

We are not the same, I am a martian.

 

[maniclion]

They need to fake some alien invasion so the world unites against some imaginary villain.

Wasn't there a movie about this already?

Move the war money over to the space exploration column.

I mean, hell, it's 2011. I was expecting...

YouTube Video

and...

YouTube Video

by now!

We do live in a Star Trekky/George Jetson World. My Iphone can do over a thousand things a tricorder could only do 3, we have the ability to use lab-on-chip tech to make our phones do biological scans like blood analysis, then they have a snap on gadget that can sense toxic gases in the air, I have an app that can read the stars, we even have portable x-ray machines that look like ray-guns, handheld ultrasound...if only we could develop society as fast as we develop our gadgets....

 

[CHTOBECOYO]

....firmly believe there's already "people" there .....

 

[LAM]

The country is broke as fuck, we can barely pay social security, the military and all the losers that we seem to support on welfare. The moon is a pipe dream until we get our house in order, let alone mars.

the US is still living in the cold war days

 

[HialeahChico305]

We are not the same, I am a martian.

 

[myCATpowerlifts]

I must spread rep before giving more to HialeahAWESOMECHICO MOTHER FUCKER!