Mars may have water, but mars also has BAD water...
Posted on 01/26/2014 7:31:00 PM PST by SunkenCiv
And it's actually (relatively) nearby.
This is poor, unfortunate Ceres. Discovered in 1801, it was at first called a planet, then soon classified as an asteroid, and recently as a dwarf planet, not quite qualifying for real planet status despite residing in the solar system's asteroid belt. But now it can feel special: the Herschel Telescope has, the for the first time, detected water on the lil' planet--probably a whole lot of it, too.
The telescope, using infrared vision, detected a signature of water vapor from Ceres. The researchers think when the 590-mile-wide Ceres moves closer to the sun, part of its icy surface (something never conclusively proven to exist before now) is being melted, and that Herschel picked it up. How much ice, then, is in the surface? To put it in context: if it was melted, it would be more fresh water than is available on all of Earth.
Serendipitously, NASA already has a space probe, Dawn, in the area, and it'll be heading to Ceres next for a closer look at the surface in spring of 2015.
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
It would make a pretty big splash if it hit earth. It would be a good first step for Mars. Although smashing one of the Martian moons into that planet might do more good. So maybe that should be the second step.
Dunno. That planet looks like it’s retaining a LOT of water...
“it would be more fresh water than is available on all of Earth. “
I hate statistics like this. They make it sound like it has oceans of water. All the FRESH WATER on earth would likely not fill up the Mediterrainean Sea.
Multiple Asteroid Strikes May Have Killed Mars’s Magnetic Field
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/mars-dynamo-death/
Dont forget that “fresh water” includes both polar icecaps, as well as the Greenland icepack, the Great Lakes, Lake Baikal, and so on. Pretty significant, and likely more than enough to fill the Med basin.
I have made potable water for human consumption.
A tall glass of this, I would not drink.
water—the one thing we need. This micro-world might make a good base to explore Mars and the Gas Giants. Put this water world in orbit around Mars.
................... if it was melted, it would be more fresh water than is available on all of Earth. ..........
How did the finding of water suddenly jump to fresh water????
Maybe it’s methane laced water, or sulpheric based water
...not so hugh, but it’s Ceres anyway...
Trying to crash it into Mars would kill all life on Earth!
Mars may have water, but mars also has BAD water...
All this talk of water is making me very thirsty.
Ah ha. Proof that global warming, or maybe I should say, Ceres warming really does exist. (Not)
How can they tell that it is FRESH water? It could be loaded with any soluble substances.
Perhaps by analyzing the spectrum of the light coming from it and filtered by it? While I haven't done it since college, spectroscopy is a very valuable tool.
It all has to do with retention ,, evaporation from the sun , what time of month/bloating .. etc. etc..
What difference does it make now?
nuw that is clever.
That’s no asteroid, that’s a service station! Good location for an industrial base supporting acquisition of resources further out (cometary ices and gases), to complement the mineral resources of asteroids. A temporary resource stepping-stone, as the bulk of ices/gas are past Pluto.
Good thing it isn’t a thread about the 7th planet....
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