Blobs in Photos of Mars Lander Stir a Debate: Are They Water?

NY Times ^ | 16 Mar 2009 | KENNETH CHANG

[mnehring]

Ladybugs

[SandWMan]

The Water Cult....

“There MUST be water on Mars”
“If there’s water, life MUST have evolved on Mars”

good grief.

[Mark319]

“Vicious Martian sand-creatures with their wet, sucking lips...PPPPFFFTTTT, PPPPFFFTTTT...” From “Rocketman”... ;)

[ConservativeColumns]

This is cool. I wonder if we can take water to Mars on our own spacecraft and see what happens to it, just to be sure. Either way we can then definitely say there’s water on Mars... ha

[cripplecreek]

Not unless it’s some kind of magical water that remains liquid well under it’s normal freezing temperature.

[evets]

BEER

[max americana]

Next article is that we propose carbon credits, set up a reservoir and windmills on Mars. If there ever was life on Mars, those microbes are more intelligent than liberals on earth.

[silverleaf]

Mar-tial warming

[He who knoweth not his name]

Martian Blisters? (VD?)

[VeniVidiVici]

Spores. Martian spores.

[microgood]

It is the spice melange

[messierhunter]

Given enough of a concentration of salt, water will remain liquid below its normal freezing temperature. Hence...

[ransomnote]

Although it is too cold for water to still be in liquid form, might the drasticly reduced air pressure/gravity allow for its apparent liquid state?

[Big_Monkey]

"Not unless it’s some kind of magical water that remains liquid well under it’s normal freezing temperature.

That's where the salt comes in. The greater the salinity of the water, the lower the freezing point.

[BGHater]

Yum! I thought anti-freeze tasted sweet? Isn’t that why cats and dogs like it?

[nothingnew]

Are They Water?

Beer

FMCDH(BITS)

[autumnraine]

You mean like magical salt water?

[Kolokotronis]

Hard to tell where that water came from. There are five seas on Mars, but we know the name of only one, Throxeus, which is only a marsh now. Well, that and the Lost Sea of Korus, but that’s no where near Phoenix.

[cripplecreek]

It would have to be some damned salty water. Also there are problems with how would it condense out of the thin martian atmosphere and remain salty.

We’ve pretty much determined that there is water in the martian environment but when it contacts the atmosphere it “boils” off almost immediately due to the very low pressure.

I’m more inclined to think that what we see are clumps of dust drawn together by static.