NASA Briefing: NASA Images Suggest Water Still Flows in Brief Spurts on Mars

NASA ^ | 6 December 2006

[smonk]

[RightWhale]

Whatever the number, it is a tiny fraction of what it should be. However, it should be private industry going into and developing space.

[RightWhale]

Ever read Blake?

[Unmarked Package]

Why does it appear to be a distributary on a downhill slope? " It doesn't appear to reach a flat area - atleast not from a monoscopic view of the image. Please - I am only speculating here - I hope you understand.

I certainly understand, skepticism is good. :-)

The pictures accompanying this article don't do justice to the structure of the flow. See the picture below for a better rendition.

[kinsman redeemer]

Thanks.

That image really changes the perspective, doesn't it?. The flow does appear to reach the plain below. This would explain the ditributary.

Also - I noticed in the other image that there are some examples of a normal dendritic drainage pattern on the downslope. Do you see them?

Thanks.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Related thread: From Young Werther.

[ex-snook]

Good one!

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

ping.

[Defiant]

Being overwhelmed by facts and opinions of professionals, it is good to resign one's fallacious position and learn from the experience.

Congratulations, you are the first on FR to ever concede thus.

[ex-snook]

Wonder what is the temperature on the surface that water flows and doesn't freeze? ????

[verum ago]

obviously the "we never saw that kind of color change" argument cannot be proof of anything (like water), it can only discredit other phenomenon
IMHO:
as for the distributary structure of the flow, that is interesting. However, it may be noteworthy that the flow is not on a surface with established drainages-- the area where the flow is appears to be a talus slope that has accumulated from countless small slides-- which could create a largely homogeneous surface shape devoid of any major topological low areas that would confine the flow within themselves. On earth these low areas are usually present from the consistent long-term action erosion (especially by water) which Mars lacks. The question is whether the local topology of that part of the talus slope contains enough vertical variation that the flow should be contained to a single channel; without regular water flow I see no reason that it should. Also, the flow appears to come from a single point, making a tributary form impossible (for lack of anything for the flow to contribute to or have contributed to it). Finally, may I suggest that if one were to take a signifcant quantity of water, say, a bucketful,and quickly dump it on a pile of dirt the water will will spread out in a distributary fashion with many rivulets. Only after there has been enough water consistently flowing (like having a garden hose issuing water onto the pile) can the flow establish a channel via erosion and contain itself within it (a more tributary from).

/shameless speculation

[kinsman redeemer]

The image to which I refer:

[bd476]

Whoa!

LOL, sorry but this is very exciting. :-)

Thank you for posting the close-up.

[RightWhale]

A few years ago, when they were seeing trees and subway systems on Mars, there were images of what could have been lava tubes that had become exposed by weathering. To me they looked like ice, not tubes but solid like ropes going here and there under the surface. Just plain ice formed under very low atmospheric pressure.

[bd476]

ex-snook wrote: "Wonder what is the temperature on the surface that water flows and doesn't freeze? ????"

From the NASA News conference, what I believe they said was that water on Mars percolates up then freezes at night, then melts in the Mars daylight.

[verum ago]

hmmm that is an interesting picture

kinsman: re post # 38: yikes! stay with it-- disagreement, discussion, and skepticism all should promote thought and hopefully bring both sides of the argument closer to the truth. Like you I'm not pretending to actually know what's going on over on some planet millions of miles away, but the least we can do is speculate and criticise each other's arguments in order to enhance both our understandings of the subject.

[bd476]

Victoria Crater



Victoria Crater

This stereo view of Mars' Victoria Crater combines two of the three images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. A red-colored image was acquired with the orbiter pointed 3.84 degrees to the west and a blue-colored one with the orbiter pointed 16.2 degrees to the west.

For a 3-D view of the topography, view this image through glasses with a red filter for your left eye, and a blue or blue-green filter for your right eye. The difference in viewing angle between the two images is about 12 degrees, which is greater than the convergence angle between the left and right eyes of humans while viewing distant objects, so the vertical relief appears much steeper than is actually the case. While some of the cliffs around the crater are in fact vertical, the slopes below the cliffs are no steeper than 30 degrees.

Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Victoria Crater

[RightWhale]

speculate and criticise

I, too, am here for that to a degree, but more because the MSM or some NASA spokesman or Lib Prof somewhere will eventually get around to saying something outrageous about what NASA should do and I hope that can be caught and destroyed before it gets embedded in some totally ill-advised national policy or gets taught in the public school system.

[verum ago]

I, too, am here for that to a degree, but more because the MSM or some NASA spokesman or Lib Prof somewhere will eventually get around to saying something outrageous about what NASA should do and I hope that can be caught and destroyed before it gets embedded in some totally ill-advised national policy or gets taught in the public school system.

that too, of course. (This is an overall political forum, afterall.)

Viva FreeRepublic!

[Strategerist]

I hope that can be caught and destroyed before it gets embedded in some totally ill-advised national policy or gets taught in the public school system.

One thing I've been confused deeply by on FR is exactly whether people are somehow fearful or feel disdain to the idea of life on other planets and how that ties into creationism.