Water on the surface of Mars... now

Discussion in 'Science and Nature' started by Floydian, Sep 29, 2015.

  1. NASA announced today that features seen on the Martian surface, which have been studied for years without confirmation of origin, are caused by the existence and flow of liquid water. This is an active natural process which occurs even today. In short, salts within the surface soil lower the freezing temperature of water, which in combination with favorable weather conditions can melt ice and draw the liquid to the uppermost layers, allowing it to flow with the assistance of gravity. This action causes a dampening and darkening of low ravines and gullies in hill sides, which can be seen from orbiting craft.


    https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-e...


    "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.


    “Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,' in our search for
    life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates
    what we've long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate
    administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
    “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water
    -- albeit briny -- is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”




    These downhill flows, known as recurring slope lineae (RSL), often
    have been described as possibly related to liquid water. The new
    findings of hydrated salts on the slopes point to what that relationship
    may be to these dark features. The hydrated salts would lower the
    freezing point of a liquid brine, just as salt on roads here on Earth
    causes ice and snow to melt more rapidly. Scientists say it's likely a
    shallow subsurface flow, with enough water wicking to the surface to
    explain the darkening.







    Dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae
    emanating out of the walls of Garni crater on Mars. The dark streaks
    here are up to few hundred meters in length. They are hypothesized to be
    formed by flow of briny liquid water on Mars. The image is produced by
    draping an orthorectified (RED) image (ESP_031059_1685) on a Digital
    Terrain Model (DTM) of the same site produced by High Resolution Imaging
    Science Experiment (University of Arizona). Vertical exaggeration is
    1.5.


    Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona


    Full image and caption






    "We found the hydrated salts only when the seasonal features were
    widest, which suggests that either the dark streaks themselves or a
    process that forms them is the source of the hydration. In either case,
    the detection of hydrated salts on these slopes means that water plays a
    vital role in the formation of these streaks," said Lujendra Ojha of
    the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, lead
    author of a report on these findings published Sept. 28 by Nature
    Geoscience.


    Ojha first noticed these puzzling features as a University of Arizona
    undergraduate student in 2010, using images from the MRO's High
    Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). HiRISE observations now
    have documented RSL at dozens of sites on Mars. The new study pairs
    HiRISE observations with mineral mapping by MRO's Compact Reconnaissance
    Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM).




    The spectrometer observations show signatures of hydrated salts at
    multiple RSL locations, but only when the dark features were relatively
    wide. When the researchers looked at the same locations and RSL weren't
    as extensive, they detected no hydrated salt.




    Ojha and his co-authors interpret the spectral signatures as caused
    by hydrated minerals called perchlorates. The hydrated salts most
    consistent with the chemical signatures are likely a mixture of
    magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate. Some
    perchlorates have been shown to keep liquids from freezing even when
    conditions are as cold as minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70
    Celsius). On Earth, naturally produced perchlorates are concentrated in
    deserts, and some types of perchlorates can be used as rocket
    propellant.




    Perchlorates have previously been seen on Mars. NASA's Phoenix lander
    and Curiosity rover both found them in the planet's soil, and some
    scientists believe that the Viking missions in the 1970s measured
    signatures of these salts. However, this study of RSL detected
    perchlorates, now in hydrated form, in different areas than those
    explored by the landers. This also is the first time perchlorates have
    been identified from orbit.




    MRO has been examining Mars since 2006 with its six science instruments.




    "The ability of MRO to observe for multiple Mars years with a payload
    able to see the fine detail of these features has enabled findings such
    as these: first identifying the puzzling seasonal streaks and now
    making a big step towards explaining what they are," said Rich Zurek,
    MRO project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in
    Pasadena, California.




    For Ojha, the new findings are more proof that the mysterious lines
    he first saw darkening Martian slopes five years ago are, indeed,
    present-day water.




    "When most people talk about water on Mars, they're usually talking
    about ancient water or frozen water," he said. "Now we know there's more
    to the story. This is the first spectral detection that unambiguously
    supports our liquid water-formation hypotheses for RSL."




    The discovery is the latest of many breakthroughs by NASA's Mars missions.




    “It took multiple spacecraft over several years to solve this
    mystery, and now we know there is liquid water on the surface of this
    cold, desert planet,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars
    Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington. “It
    seems that the more we study Mars, the more we learn how life could be
    supported and where there are resources to support life in the future.”


    "There are eight co-authors of the Nature Geoscience paper, including
    Mary Beth Wilhelm at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field,
    California and Georgia Tech; CRISM Principal Investigator Scott Murchie
    of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel,
    Maryland; and HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen of the
    University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona.
    Others are at Georgia Tech, the Southwest Research Institute in
    Boulder, Colorado, and Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique in
    Nantes, France.




    The agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California
    manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science
    Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin built the orbiter and
    collaborates with JPL to operate it.






    More information about NASA's journey to Mars is available online at:


    https://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars


    For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:




    http://www.nasa.gov/mro




    -end-"


    An interesting GIF;


    [​IMG]


    Time to start growing that Mars weed, right? :D

     
  2. Absolutely amazing!!!
     
  3. Fantastic
    Think it will grow?


     
  4. There's water on Mars.


    If only some grass will cultivate there.

     
  5. This isn't even news. We've known there was water on Mars for like 20 years. Just 6 or 7 years ago they found snow on Mars. Which should have told them then that there must be liquid water.
     
  6. #6 Floydian, Sep 29, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 29, 2015
    The "snow" falls we've observed on Mars, which are really more of a fog, are actually made of carbon dioxide (essentially dry ice.)


    Also, knowing something and proving something are two different things! [​IMG]

     
  7. If Mars had a moon like ours, with a stable orbit, it might look like a cooler earth

    -Yuri
     
  8. I hope Mars has some bad bitches.
     
  9. Water is a great prerequisite for life, but it's a long way (statistically speaking) from water and a minimal set of base organic ingredients to functional RNA.


    Enzymes mediate RNA functionality but enzymes are protein complexes that are synthesized by an elaborate set of enzyme catalyzed reaction mechanisms as specified in the base sequences of RNA (and later, DNA). One resulting problem is, it's kind of difficult to have at our disposal the necessary enzymes for RNA functionality before there's a code that specifies them, as needing the molecular apparatus necessary for expressing the information contained in RNA'S base sequences. it's one thing to have some parts for a computer lying on a table for assembly, but without the assembly mechanisms all we have are scattered parts. In this analogy, the functionality of the computer is to run the program that specifies the parts required for assembly and operation. But it's a catch-22 - we need the computer to be already functional in order to specify and make a functional computer!
    .
    So, it's been found that RNA itself can act as an enzyme for a small, select set of catalytic reactions. But still, that's a drop in the ocean (no pun intended) compared with what it takes, in terms of a large assortment of highly selected and rather elaborate chemosynthesis, to go from the existence of water and some previously polymerized RNA (also highly unlikely in most random environments) to even the simplest and most fundamental of living mechanisms - the cell.


    But wonder of wonders and in spite of seemingly forbidding conditions and unfavorable odds, and maybe even somehow in spite of that very nasty catch-22, life has a strange way showing up in some very hostile environments... eventually. It's pretty remarkable! And all the more so as science continually unravels to our astonishment, the underlying chemistry that makes "life" tick.
     
  10. no this is the first time we have difinitive proof

    Until now its always been "Mars probly had water once"

    Now its

    "Mars for sure has water even now"

    -Yuri
     
  11. War?
     
  12. #15 12valve, Oct 5, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 5, 2015
    Didn't mean to sound like HE was a war monger, but to get his hands on nuclear bombs for what he'd like to do would require relationships with unfavorable agencies.




     
  13. No one would just give some guy nukes... The government would obviously send then there... He might create the technology but theres no way it wouldnt be the government pressing the launch button to send them there... Thats just silly dude
     
  14. You got a point, but i've never been a fan of these geoengineering projects, they never know the actual effects until it's far too late.
     
  15. It's Mars. It's a gigantic clusterfuck of mother nature calamities up there. I'm pretty sure there is a very wide margin of error for nuking considering they are looking to focus on two specific areas. If we were to do this it would not be like any previous geoengineering project we've ever attempted.

    Personally, I'd like to see nukes used for something beneficial and aiding to humanity up there rather than down here. Who knows, maybe something like this is how humanity eventually gets rid of all nukes. Granted, obviously not today or tomorrow, but who knows, maybe further down the road disarmament comes as a byproduct of a scientific endeavor like this.

     
  16. it's Mars....

    Its not like we are going to kill off the Martian biosphere.

    Better there than here on earth.

    -Yuri
     
  17. Seems pretty negligent to me if there was anyone looking from the outside. But hey, MURICA, lets goto town on it.


    Again, I agree to disagree with man made climate intervention, but that's the beauty of life.
     

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