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NASA confirms water on Mars.
Zorvan
Member CommonPosts: 8,912
NASA confirms water on Mars
Until now, the evidence for ice has been circumstantial
 NASA / JPL-Caltech / UA / TAMU The shadow of the stereo camera on Phoenix Mars Lander is prominent in this picture taken by the camera on June 25, only hours after the start of Mars' northern summer. Phoenix is analyzing its surroundings in the Red Planet's north polar region. Scientists say the chemical test confirms the presence of water near the Martian north pole. |
Until now, the evidence for ice has been circumstantial. That was based on photos Phoenix took of a hard splotchy area near its landing site and changes it saw in a trench.
The robot heated up ice in one of its instruments earlier this week. Scientists say the chemical test confirms the presence of ice near the Martian north pole.
"We have water," said William Boynton, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer instrument on Phoenix.
"We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted," he said.
NASA on Thursday also extended the mission of the Phoenix Mars Lander by five weeks, saying its work was moving beyond the search for water to exploring whether the red planet was ever capable of sustaining life.
The extension will add about $2 million to the $420 million cost of landing Phoenix for what was a scheduled three-month mission, said Michael Meyer, chief scientist for NASA's Mars exploration program.
Phoenix is the latest NASA bid to discover whether water — a crucial ingredient for life — ever flowed on Mars and whether life, even in the form of mere microbes, exists or ever existed there.
Phoenix touched down in May on an ice sheet and samples of the ice were seen melting away in photographs taken by the lander's instruments in June.
Boynton said that water was positively identified after the lander's robotic arm delivered a soil sample on Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by heating.
Mission scientists said the extension would give time for more analysis of Martian samples. They plan to dig two additional trenches — dubbed "cupboard" and "neverland" — using the robotic arm on the Phoenix craft.
"We hope to be able to answer the question of whether this was a habitable zone on Mars. It will be for future missions to find if anyone is home on this environment," Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith told the news conference.
Mission scientists said in June that Martian soil was more alkaline than expected and had traces of magnesium, sodium, potassium and other elements. They described the findings as a "huge step forward."
Meyer said the scientific proof of the existence of water meant that Phoenix could "move from looking for water to seeing whether there were habitats for life.
"We are moving towards understanding whether there were or could be places on Mars that are habitable," Meyer said.
Comments
I could imagine living on Mars...
The only bad part would be the playing MMOs, the ping would be so high!
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In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08 - Rest In Peace; you will not be forgotten
The only bad news is the 1st quest you will get is "collect 10 boar hides" and you will have to wait maybe 10,000 years for the boar to spawn.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
WTF do you mean there is no air? Shouldn't there be air if there is water!!! ARRGHHGHGHGH (Conan Scream)
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
Welcome to at least 10 years ago. I guess they thought the ice caps were made out of cottage cheese before this discovery.
I dont want to sound like a chemistry teacher here but it is possible to have ice caps without the chemical combination of H20.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
Uhh, this is news?
Haven't we known that the polar icecaps on mars have been melting for over a decade?
Yes it is being caused by manmade global warming.
But seriously like a prior poster said it is possible to have icecaps without H20.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Water on Mars...cool...so it'll be another 50years before a person walks on it.
Yes but more importantly....
Can you fish?
I hate to be the pessimist, but this does not prove there is water on Mars. They found little splotches of ice in a trench. It could have easily been remanents of a comet. After all, they have theorized Mars being struck by comets before.
or god couldn't make it in time to the toilet.
Am I the only one that is disappointed in NASA's course these past years? 40 years ago we sent men to the moon, now the best we can do in the computer age is to send a little remote controlled car to go scoop up dirt on Mars?
Alright man go ahead and make your own space shuttle and go to Mars, lets see you do it.
~Greatness~
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Perhaps it's wise to determine if there are microbes and such there before we do? You know, so the astronauts don't bring back a Martian plague, or something?
NASA fucking suck they havn't done anything since the moon landing and even that is probably fake because theres no actual proof but dodgey photos and video footage which just proves it was done in a studio lol.
Can't Wait till China go to the moon and search for the American flag, if it ain't there then LOL!
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Talking about SWG much?
So you're saying China was too inept to even fake it?
Alright man go ahead and make your own space shuttle and go to Mars, lets see you do it.
Lol what a lame jab. Just because I can't go to Mars single handedly doesn't mean NASA is doing a good job. Ridiculous.
I wonder how much money, how many hundreds of billions NASA has spent in the past 30 years? And what do we have to show for it? A handful of probes to other planets in our SS, the International Space Station (lol, which we didn't even do on our own) and the Space Shuttle, a horrifically expensive, extremely complicated, and sadly dangerous vehicle. I believe 1960's rocket technology has the space shuttle beat on all fronts.
Perhaps it's wise to determine if there are microbes and such there before we do? You know, so the astronauts don't bring back a Martian plague, or something?
You think we're going to discover a Martian plague by scooping up a couple cups full of dirt? Really...what are the odds? I wonder how many of Earth's viruses are present in any given ounce of soil or water.
I think the Chinese will get there first myself. The US space program sucks. The keep doing the same old same old instead of pushing forward.
It's more or less a requirement for Mars to have been struck by a comet at some point in the past given the composition of its atmosphere.
Same with mercury and its density levels
Same with Earth and the fact that we even have a Moon (Mars' moons are captured astroids)
Same with Venus and its retrograde orbit.
The magical comet wand is fun.
Your argument is like a two legged dog with an eating disorder...weak and unbalanced.
Perhaps it's wise to determine if there are microbes and such there before we do? You know, so the astronauts don't bring back a Martian plague, or something?
You think we're going to discover a Martian plague by scooping up a couple cups full of dirt? Really...what are the odds? I wonder how many of Earth's viruses are present in any given ounce of soil or water.
If there are microbes in the water, what may be "life" there may be deadly here. And vice versa. What if there are lower lifeforms such as microbes or even dormant amoeba which WE happen to be lethal to?
Perhaps it's wise to determine if there are microbes and such there before we do? You know, so the astronauts don't bring back a Martian plague, or something?
You think we're going to discover a Martian plague by scooping up a couple cups full of dirt? Really...what are the odds? I wonder how many of Earth's viruses are present in any given ounce of soil or water.
If there are microbes in the water, what may be "life" there may be deadly here. And vice versa. What if there are lower lifeforms such as microbes or even dormant amoeba which WE happen to be lethal to?
Any people we send will be wearing full space suits...and to walk around without them there would need to be massive terraforming and re-atmosphering...so really, unless there is some sort of sci-fi channel disease that can go through solid objects, and doesn't take effect until 6 months when they're back on earth...
... in fact, there could be wampas and rancors laying in wait for us, so why go at all?
I think you're putting the cart before the horse, and really I'm not criticizing NASA for this mission in particular, I'm just disappointed with the last 20 years of their work.
'Tis a lie sir, God created the heavens and the earth only a few thousand years ago, dinosaurs lived just a few years before us. We are the only life in the universe, yada yada, etc etc.
Set your brains on stunned.
http://mmmgroup.altervista.org/e-trees.html
Not enough?
http://ufologie.net/htm/marslake.htm
What goes on here?
http://www.libertythink.com/totalinformation/BlueMars.htm
Surface water?
Now for the really weird
Actually the above is a type of sand dune that forms inside of some craters, but it does look like a geodesic building. This one just appears as a perfect circle. i have seen several others like this on the net. Just not as perfect.
Perhaps it's wise to determine if there are microbes and such there before we do? You know, so the astronauts don't bring back a Martian plague, or something?
You think we're going to discover a Martian plague by scooping up a couple cups full of dirt? Really...what are the odds? I wonder how many of Earth's viruses are present in any given ounce of soil or water.
If there are microbes in the water, what may be "life" there may be deadly here. And vice versa. What if there are lower lifeforms such as microbes or even dormant amoeba which WE happen to be lethal to?
Any people we send will be wearing full space suits...and to walk around without them there would need to be massive terraforming and re-atmosphering...so really, unless there is some sort of sci-fi channel disease that can go through solid objects, and doesn't take effect until 6 months when they're back on earth...
... in fact, there could be wampas and rancors laying in wait for us, so why go at all?
I think you're putting the cart before the horse, and really I'm not criticizing NASA for this mission in particular, I'm just disappointed with the last 20 years of their work.
And accidents happen. Some microbe filled water on a boot that doesn't get properly decontaminated, etc., etc. And it doesn't need 6 months to get back to Earth, what if it kills the damn astronauts before they even get back? Better safe than sorry, is all I'm saying.
And I agree with you about the last 20 years. Hell, we go to the moon once, and never go back. We spend millions just to watch the mission get scrubbed because somebody didn't get their back scratched good enough. We watch good men and women die to simple mechanical failures that should never have made it past testing.
But you don't just waltz into someone elses backyard ( Mars ) without knowing if there's a guard dog there.