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Red Planet's Ancient Equator Located
Scientific American (online) ^ | April 20, 2005 | Sarah Graham

Posted on 04/24/2005 8:18:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Jafar Arkani-Hamed of McGill University discovered that five impact basins--dubbed Argyre, Hellas, Isidis, Thaumasia and Utopia--form an arclike pattern on the Martian surface. Three of the basins are well-preserved and remain visible today. The locations of the other two, in contrast, were inferred from measurements of anomalies in the planet's gravitational field... a single source--most likely an asteroid that was initially circling the sun in the same plane as Mars--created all five craters. At one point the asteroid passed close to the Red Planet... and was broken apart by the force of the planet's gravity. The resulting five pieces subsequently slammed into Mars along its then equator. The center of the circle inscribed by the five craters, which marks the planet's ancient south pole, lies at present day latitude -30 and longitude 175.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciam.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; History; Science
KEYWORDS: archaeology; asteroid; asteroids; bodeslaw; catastrophism; deimos; emiliospedicato; fear; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; hemisphereofcraters; history; impact; impacts; mars; martiandesert; martianequator; martianimpact; moon; moons; oppositehemisphere; patten; phobos; rochelimit; rocheradius; space; spedicato; terror; titiusbode; titiusbodeslaw; tvf; vanflandern; xplanets
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The Scars of Mars

1 posted on 04/24/2005 8:18:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: blam; FairOpinion; Ernest_at_the_Beach; StayAt HomeMother; SunkenCiv; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; ...
This is a GGG ping, for "Astronomy and Catastrophism". The graphic in comment #1 is a bit of trick I've played. It comes from a paper published in 1991 (however, it was first published in KRONOS in 1985), "The Scars of Mars", by Donald W. Patten. The website on which it appears is a little creepy, but Patten's general idea is the same as seen in this new paper -- that a single, large impactor reached its Roche point during terminal descent, shattered, and smashed into the planet, forming a number of craters. This new paper puts the number at five, Patten attributes the formation of the "Hemisphere of Craters" to this single event, with the remaining craters having formed more or less uniformly over a much longer span of time.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest
-- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

2 posted on 04/24/2005 8:25:48 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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To: KevinDavis; Swordmaker; HAL9000

Images reveal 'sea of ice' near Mars' equator
Associated Press | Feb 26, 2005
Posted on 02/26/2005 4:02:49 AM PST by FYREDEUS
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1351506/posts

"The point is that the ice is very recent: it appears to still be there, covered beneath a layer of dust and ash," John Murray of Britain's Open University said in a telephone interview.


3 posted on 04/24/2005 8:27:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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To: 75thOVI; AndrewC; Avoiding_Sulla; BenLurkin; Berosus; CGVet58; chilepepper; ckilmer; Eastbound; ...
The Scars of Mars
by Donald W. Patten
January 1991
It is to be noted that all 15 of the largest craters of Mars are in the Hemisphere of Craters. It is also noteworthy that the massive lava outflows of Argyre, Hellas, and Isidis undoubtedly have spread and occluded a certain significant number of craters Thus our figure of 3068 craters 20 miles and larger in diameter has been masked by these lava outflows; the original figure was even larger before lava flow and before larger craters occluded some smaller ones.

If there is a shift from our Table III, therefore, it will probably be in the direction of an even greater extreme. And the 7 percent crater count in the Opposite Hemisphere may in fact be somewhat larger than the original impact situation.



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4 posted on 04/24/2005 8:31:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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To: SunkenCiv
I don't know why, but the first thing that comes to mind is the Dr. Who 4-parter, Pyramids of Mars.
5 posted on 04/24/2005 8:42:02 PM PDT by kitchen (Over gunned? Hell, that's better than the alternative!)
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To: SunkenCiv
The thule.org domain name, and your own "creepy" description of it makes me a bit cautious of clicking on at work. Bookmarked for home viewing. :)

NFP

6 posted on 04/25/2005 6:18:37 AM PDT by Notforprophet (Democrats have stood their own arguments on their heads so often that they now stand for nothing.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Ooooookay. What tipped Mars off its' then axis?


7 posted on 04/25/2005 6:22:16 AM PDT by null and void (So I it isn't as bad as I had thought. (Usually it is.))
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To: null and void

It may have been the impacts. Naturally, the only thing the article is concerned with is whether there's any water on Mars.


8 posted on 04/25/2005 6:41:26 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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To: null and void; Notforprophet

Giant Impact Basins Trace the Ancient Equator of Mars
Jafar Arkani-Hamed
Earth and planetary sciences, McGill University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
http://www.agu.org/pubs/pip/2004JE002343.pdf

"...theoretical modeling of the polar wander of Mars showed that the rotation axis of Mars could have moved by as much as 70 degrees within a geologically short time period in response to the emplacement of Tharsis mass [Spada et al., 1996]. The theoretical modeling also demonstrated the crucial effects of the mantle viscosity and the thickness of the rigid lithosphere on the polar wander."


9 posted on 04/25/2005 7:12:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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Arkani-Hamed mars

10 posted on 04/25/2005 7:13:59 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Dang. No Velikovsky?


11 posted on 04/25/2005 7:16:08 AM PDT by null and void (So I it isn't as bad as I had thought. (Usually it is.))
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To: Professional Engineer

ping


12 posted on 04/25/2005 7:17:40 AM PDT by Peanut Gallery
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Spitzer Sees the Aftermath of a Planetary Collision
Universe Today | Jan. 10, 2005 | Dolores Beasley and Gay Yee Hill
Posted on 01/13/2005 8:50:18 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1320521/posts


13 posted on 04/25/2005 7:31:32 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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Collision in Vega

14 posted on 04/25/2005 7:33:35 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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Giant Impact Basins Trace the Ancient Equator of Mars
Jafar Arkani-Hamed
Earth and planetary sciences, McGill University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
http://www.agu.org/pubs/pip/2004JE002343.pdf

"The original heliocentric asteroid was likely fragmented into many pieces and the orbital motion of 5 large fragments evolved rapidly and produced the giant basins. Many small bodies likely scattered and spread over a larger volume, and some out of the orbital plane of the original asteroid. It is possible that these small fragments were eventually collapsed on the equatorial plane and impacted on Mars at very low angles, creating some of the class 3 elliptical craters reported by Schultz and Lutz-Garihan [1982]. Also, there is no reason to believe that all large basins of Mars originated from fragmentation of a single asteroid. Some large basins, such as Chryse, Ares, and buried basins may have been produced by other heliocentric asteroids."


15 posted on 04/25/2005 7:35:18 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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To: null and void
What tipped Mars off its' then axis?

It might be that all the planets flop around unless they have a large moon to provide stability.

16 posted on 04/25/2005 7:41:53 AM PDT by RightWhale (50 trillion sovereign cells working together in relative harmony)
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THE TWIN TILTS OF THE SPIN AXES OF MARS AND EARTH
Donald W. Patten and Samuel R. Windsor
http://www.kronia.com/symposium/patten.txt

"According to Roche's Limit, fragmentation of a smaller approaching body would occur at about 5,500 miles from the center of Mars, which is 3,400 miles above its surface. Almost opposite to the giant Hellas Crater is the gigantic Tharsis Bulge on Mars, some 4.5 miles high and 3,200 miles broad, scar piece # 3. A diagonal drawn from the center of Tharsis through the center of Hellas should give the trajectory of Astra, as it approached Mars, only to disintegrate into explosive fragments."


17 posted on 04/25/2005 7:45:02 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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In the shadow of the Moon
New Scientist | 30 January 1999 | editors
Posted on 08/31/2004 8:42:25 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1203912/posts
18 posted on 08/31/2004 12:24:41 PM PDT by RightWhale
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1203912/posts?page=18#18

New evidence for the Moon's soft middle
New Scientist | 14 February 2002 | Will Knight
Posted on 12/27/2004 2:29:35 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1309193/posts
28 posted on 12/31/2004 9:21:42 AM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1309193/posts?page=28#28

When the Days Were Shorter
Alaska Science Forum (Article #742) | November 11, 1985 | Larry Gedney
Posted on 10/04/2004 10:31:59 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1234919/posts


18 posted on 04/25/2005 7:52:00 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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To: null and void
"What tipped Mars off its' then axis?"

Some from Venus would probably say that it's cuz we wouldn't stop to ask directions, but don't you believe 'em! :-)
19 posted on 04/26/2005 10:33:57 AM PDT by Hegemony Cricket (I have learned to deal with change. Any possibility of letting me try some currency?)
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To: null and void; Hegemony Cricket

I think HC is onto something there. :')


20 posted on 04/26/2005 10:48:03 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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