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Posted on 01/27/2007 6:10:38 PM PST by BenLurkin
Mars is losing little water to space, according to new research, so much of its ancient abundance may still be hidden beneath the surface.
Dried up riverbeds and other evidence imply that Mars once had enough water to fill a global ocean more than 600 metres deep, together with a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide that kept the planet warm enough for the water to be liquid. But the planet is now very dry and has a thin atmosphere.
Some scientists have proposed that the Red Planet lost its water and CO2 to space as the solar wind stripped molecules from the top of the planet's atmosphere. Measurements by Russia's Phobos-2 probe to Mars in 1989 hinted that the loss was quite rapid.
Now the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has revealed that the rate of loss is much lower. Stas Barabash of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics in Kiruna led a team that used data from Mars Express's ASPERA-3 instrument
Its measurements suggest the whole planet loses only about 20 grams per second of oxygen and CO2 to space, only about 1% of the rate inferred from Phobos-2 data. If this rate has held steady over Mars's history, it would have removed just a few centimetres of water, and a thousandth of the original CO2.
Huge amountsEither some other process removed the water and CO2 or they are still present and hidden somewhere on Mars, probably underground, Barabash says. "We are talking about huge amounts of water," he told New Scientist. "To store it somewhere requires a really big, huge reservoir."
"If water is there, I think it will put all ideas about human missions to Mars on a completely different level," he says
(Excerpt) Read more at space.newscientist.com ...
Ping
CONSERVE MARS WATER!!!
NASA needs more money, again.
They got some kind of back room deal with the European Space Agency?
Sadly that's pretty much how liberals are looking at it. Aside from their claims that we'll "destroy the other planets too" they have a song and dance about ending hunger, hatred, poverty etc.
I just tell them that since they're clearly against all forms of progress, we should just start chucking all the worlds nukes and get it done with. Unfortunately they would rather nag and irritate the human race to extinction.
Water?
What next: Martian microbes and animals that live in hostile environments like those found in volcanic vents in Earth's oceans and various calderas?
related:
Life may lie deep below Martian surface
New Scientist | 01/30/07 | Maggie McKee
Posted on 01/30/2007 10:23:36 PM EST by KevinDavis
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1776524/posts
oops, and alas...
Hints Of Huge Water Reservoirs On Mars
New Scientist | 1-25-2007 | David Shiga
Posted on 01/25/2007 2:09:55 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1773643/posts
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