Posted on 07/25/2018 10:02:21 AM PDT by jazusamo
Scientists have uncovered a "a stable body of liquid water" on Mars, in what some are calling a "game changer" in the search for alien life.
What is believed to be liquid water is sitting below Mars' southern polar ice cap and is described as a "well-defined, 20-kilometer-wide zone." 20 kilometers is roughly 12.5 miles.
The findings, which are published in the journal Science, were made possibly by Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS), an instrument that resides on the Mars Express spacecraft. MARSIS surveyed Mars' Planum Australe region between May 2012 and December 2015 and utilized radar pulses, sending them through the surface and the polar ice caps, ultimately measuring how the radio waves came back.
The pulses that came back created the aforementioned "well-defined, 20-kilometer-wide zone" and found that the radar reflected the brightness of the liquid water. The study's abstract notes that it is surrounded by "much less reflective areas," a sign that it is indeed water.
The team that wrote the study, including lead author Professor Roberto Orosei, have ruled out any other causes for the brightness.
Speaking with the BBC, Orosei said it probably isn't "a very large lake," but added that this is a body of water and not runoff from a glacier or something else.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
LOL
“what is believed to be liquid water”
They are looking at it through “ice” of some sort (not frozen water) with radar. I’m pretty sure that any liquid would show up as a strong reflector of the radar waves. It is probably whatever is frozen - but the same crap in liquid form.
Of course that begs the question of why is it liquid? Increased pressure of thicker “ice”?
Heat source within the planet (I don’t think plate tectonics have been proven on Mars.)
There is an old clip from the X_files TV show where some guy is running Ground Penetrating Radar over a basement slab.
“So that will tell you where the body is?”
“Well, no, but a trained operator can differentiate between the signals, but it may be a body, a rock, or a void.”
“Differentiates? So he guesses?”
“Well - it’s an educated guess.”
Large pond found on Mars. Scum also discovered.
Matt Damon never found any water on Mars. Not even contaminated water.
A discovery so profound, even a cave man can understand the significance.
Or not...
Actually...lots of people care. Might want to visit someday and while there, drink a glass of water.
What is believed to be liquid water is sitting below Mars' southern polar ice cap
Thanks jazusamo.
It could be tequila.....................
Looks like I was wrong. Our rovers measured daytime temperatures as high as 43F, and summer at the equator can apparently get up to 70.
Though that plunges to -100 or more at night.
Um, is there any other kind of “water” that isn’t liquid?
Something is going on regarding mars.
Yep, ice and vapor.
Sounds like it is under the polar ice cap, so not directly exposed to the atmosphere.
Umm, water vapor?
WOW!
Yeah, plasmas are composed of ions not actual molecules, so you could have a plasma of Hydrogen and Oxygen ions, but not one of water molecules.
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