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NASA: Seasonal Water Flows on Mars

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Z

Ziltoidia 9

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fbd.jpg



I love how we can figure this stuff out all the way from here.

This, and distant systems/stars....we really are amazing.
 
G

Griss

Member
That is huge, and super exciting.

If water is procurable on-site, a mission to mars or mars base suddenly becomes a lot more feasible, right? That has to have been one of the biggest problems.
 
O

oti

Banned
They found Rihanna's new album on Mars.

I think that's right. I read the new PopGAF OP and I think that's what they were talking about. I'm not sure though.
 
W

Wasp

Member
They need to send a rover there next and do some probing around.

Also they should sprinkle some tardigrades (waterbears) around whilst they're at it considering the solar system is doing such a piss poor job of populating itself with life apart from us. Just sprinkle them everywhere and give them a few million years to evolve.
 
Starfield

Starfield

Member
So what. Water is on Mars. That doesn't mean humans can live there let alone go and survive there.


Does Mars even have an oxygen-based athmosphere? I don't think so.
 
E

EASTC0AST_GH05T

Member
We are about to find out how long Matt Damon the martian has really been living up there. He will reveal the other life form to everyone, he also found ET's bike up there.
 
S

SkyOdin

Member
Hado said:
So what. Water is on Mars. That doesn't mean humans can live there let alone go and survive there.
Click to expand...

Well, it isn't like we can just walk around the surface of the planet unprotected, but people could live on Mars more easily than they could on the ISS. Mars has gravity at the very least. The main obstacle to creating a Moon base or a base on Mars comes down to available resources. Having access to water would be a huge help for any long term exploratory mission.

Of course, the really significant find about liquid water on Mars is that there might be microbes living in that brine. That would be the find of the millennium.
 
MilkyJoe

MilkyJoe

Member
SkyOdin said:
Well, it isn't like we can just walk around the surface of the planet unprotected, but people could live on Mars more easily than they could on the ISS. Mars has gravity at the very least. The main obstacle to creating a Moon base or a base on Mars comes down to available resources. Having access to water would be a huge help for any long term exploratory mission.

Of course, the really significant find about liquid water on Mars is that there might be microbes living in that brine. That would be the find of the millennium.
Click to expand...

But would they ever tell anyone?
 
K

Keio

For a Finer World
Any stream mirrors – Ustream keeps breaking for me.

edit: dumb me, OP had been edited – YouTube works great.
 
B

Bronx-Man

Banned
Let's be honest here: the only type of announcements that the general public would consider to be "major" are that we either found aliens or we're able to move to a different planet.
 
S

SpecX

Member
Nice find, but what caught my attention and probably has been common knowledge, but Mars at the equator can reach 70F. I always thought it was freezing cold, but the summer months can get the temperature to what's comfortable here on Earth.
 
MilkyJoe

MilkyJoe

Member
Damaniel said:
What's with all the science hate here? I'm sorry that you two don't find this particularly interesting, but (most of) the rest of us certainly do.
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There is no science hate from me, I am a life long, always learning, science dude. I mean't everyone knew it was water, stop treating everyone like children with the big announcements and building up, just spill the beans and lets get on to the next part.
 
N

NateDog

Member
SpecX said:
Nice find, but what caught my attention and probably has been common knowledge, but Mars at the equator can reach 70F. I always thought it was freezing cold, but the summer months can get the temperature to what's comfortable here on Earth.
Click to expand...

I found that quite interesting too. It's a big enough range but the summer temperature is what surprised me most, then again as you say perhaps it has been known or theorised for quite a while especially if the presence of (liquid) water on the planet has been suggested by many before. Fascinating news anyway, hope we get some more tidbits at least in the next few days.

For those of you more in the know about this subject, how long would you say it would take for NASA to be able to actually take samples of this and study them?
 
M

Mad Season

Banned
MilkyJoe said:
There is no science hate from me, I am a life long, always learning, science dude. I mean't everyone knew it was water, stop treating everyone like children with the big announcements and building up, just spill the beans and lets get on to the next part.
Click to expand...

they probably wanted to get their facts and presentation correct. SLOW YOUR ROLL
 
H

Hoo-doo

Banned
MilkyJoe said:
There is no science hate from me, I am a life long, always learning, science dude. I mean't everyone knew it was water, stop treating everyone like children with the big announcements and building up, just spill the beans and lets get on to the next part.
Click to expand...

Eh, presenting verifiable proof for a hypothesis is one of the core fundaments of scientific research. This is what it is all about.

You call yourself a 'science dude' but you can't appreciate what they are presenting here? Really?
 
C

cameron

Member
JPL Press Release: "NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today's Mars"
New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.
Click to expand...
 
K

Kworn

Banned
Alfred McEwen, a senior author on the study says:

Where the water comes from remains a mystery. It has to come from either the atmosphere or the ground, or both, via shallow ground ice, but there are problems with both ideas. It could even be water liberated from certain hydrated minerals that contain a lot of water, such as polyhydrated sulfates, which do exist on Mars but not in association with most RSL. I’m favoring the idea that it comes from the atmosphere, trapped by deliquescent salts such as perchlorates and chlorides.
 
G

gutshot

Member
EASTC0AST_GH05T said:
Mars has a thin atmosphere that is 95% carbon dioxide, is that even livable for humans? in winter Mars can reach minus 195 degrees, that is crazy.
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Not to mention the huge doses of radiation. Humans would have to live underground or in a bubble. At least until we terraform the planet.
 
MilkyJoe

MilkyJoe

Member
Hoo-doo said:
Eh, presenting verifiable proof for a hypothesis is one of the core fundaments of scientific research. This is what it is all about.

You call yourself a 'science dude' but you can't appreciate what they are presenting here? Really?
Click to expand...

I know the implications, read what I said, just announce it without the theatre.
 
S

SkyOdin

Member
EASTC0AST_GH05T said:
Mars has a thin atmosphere that is 95% carbon dioxide, is that even livable for humans? in winter Mars can reach minus 195 degrees, that is crazy.
Click to expand...

No, an unprotected human would die pretty fast on Mars. If it was an environment someone could walk around comfortably in, it probably would already have trees and stuff. However, it is theoretically possible to make it into an environment that people could comfortably walk around in, with a few centuries worth of planetary engineering. That's probably not worth the effort though. On the other hand, you could build an air-tight shelter on the surface of the planet fairly easily and just live in that. It wouldn't be as difficult or dangerous to live in as a spacecraft, since you would have some gravity and no risk of being sucked into a vacuum.
 
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