Posted on 11/20/2017 6:57:07 PM PST by BenLurkin
In 2015, observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed trace amounts of water (mixed with heavy doses of salts) on the Red Planet's surface. These "hydrated salts" corresponded with dark streaks on Martian hillsides called recurring slope lineae (RSL), which researchers had already identified as possible sites of liquid water rising to the surface.
Studies of RSL, and in particular the findings by the MRO, introduced the tantalizing possibility that there could be enough liquid water on the surface of Mars today to support microbial life
But the new study shows that those dark RSL could simply be flows of sand and other granular material, according to a statement from NASA. In addition, the authors provide more reasons why the liquid water explanation does not fit with certain features of RSL.
"We've thought of RSL as possible liquid water flows, but the slopes are more like what we expect for dry sand," Colin Dundas, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Science Center and a lead author on the new study, said in the statement.
"This new understanding of RSL supports other evidence that shows that Mars today is very dry."
However, neither study can fully explain all the features of the Martian RSL, and the authors of the new paper admit the mystery may not be solved until a rover or a human expedition can explore those regions directly.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Canals!! (or canalli)
Dang skid marks.
Bah, it’s a conspiracy... to deny infrastructure loans to Helium to improve its canals.
:)
The Martians were also fools, who ignored the signs of Cosmic Warming.
Needed paleontologist with hammer and hand lens.
That’s what they’d like you to believe...
But we’re talking about Mars, not Uranus.
True. The skid marks on Mars are not my fault.
Lol! Very good!
(dark streaks...uranus)
They were first described by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli during the opposition of 1877, and confirmed by later observers.
Schiaparelli called these canali, which was translated into English as "canals".
The Irish astronomer Charles E. Burton made some of the earliest drawings of straight-line features on Mars, although his drawings did not match Schiaparelli's.
By the early 20th century, improved astronomical observations revealed the "canals" to be an optical illusion, and modern high resolution mapping of the Martian surface by spacecraft shows no such features.--Wikipedia
1877 map of Mars by Giovanni Schiaparelli.
Sorry. crap link
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