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NASA to Announce 'Significant Findings' of Water on Mars Tuesday!
Space DOT com ^ | 3-1-04 | Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer

Posted on 03/01/2004 2:08:45 PM PST by vannrox

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Wholly Cow!
1 posted on 03/01/2004 2:08:46 PM PST by vannrox
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To: vannrox

Mars used to have water!!!!

Details at 11! ;)
2 posted on 03/01/2004 2:11:59 PM PST by smith288 (http://www.ejsmithweb.com/FR/JohnKerry/)
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To: vannrox
It's turning into quite an interesting year. And I don't mean that in reference to the Chinese curse.
3 posted on 03/01/2004 2:13:36 PM PST by Celtjew Libertarian (Shake Hands with the Serpent: Poetry by Charles Lipsig aka Celtjew http://books.lulu.com/lipsig)
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To: vannrox
I can't help noticing that every Mars Rover story has to mention the price of the mission.
4 posted on 03/01/2004 2:15:35 PM PST by Batrachian
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To: Batrachian
Can you say....Well, well...Deep subject!!
5 posted on 03/01/2004 2:20:32 PM PST by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: smith288
I guess those polar icecaps aren't optical illusions afterall....

Sorry, but if this is the best NASA can do they need a good butt kicking....we've SEEN the caps, we know there is water there.
6 posted on 03/01/2004 2:23:59 PM PST by Stopislamnow
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To: vannrox


7 posted on 03/01/2004 2:25:33 PM PST by NautiNurse (Missing Iraqi botulinum toxin? Look at John Kerry's face)
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To: vannrox
Pity it wasn't gold they found, resulting in another rush.

...really could've used the vacated space.

8 posted on 03/01/2004 2:28:59 PM PST by Landru (Indulgences: 2 for a buck.)
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To: Stopislamnow
Not necessarily... those icecaps COULD be dry ice... frozen carbon dioxide.

It's pretty much been agreed that the icecaps are water ice, but the possibility still remained that it was dry ice. Finding liquid water would decide it once and for all.
9 posted on 03/01/2004 2:29:48 PM PST by TruBluKentuckian
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To: smith288
I think Mars still has water....buried under the surface.
10 posted on 03/01/2004 2:31:29 PM PST by Dog (Bin Laden your account to America is past due......time to pay up.)
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To: vannrox; Phil V.; Piltdown_Woman; FireTrack; Monty22; wirestripper; Indie; Djarum; RightWhale; ...
Phil, can you plunk your magic twanger (your ping list)? I've pinged a bunch, but I know I've missed plenty.

I was about to post this article, when I found it had already been posted (I searched for it before posting).

Moving right along...

My WAG is that they're playing the "limited hang-out" gambit and will not 'fess up to the obvious evidence of life found by the rovers, but will make great hay over the (already known) water.

What will (IMO) be new will be the revelation that there is liquid water in the immediate sub-surface region. One implication would be that the earlier satellite data of massive amounts of sub-surface water -- in the form of permafrost -- will have to be revised. This would mean that it could be fairly trivial to sink a shallow well and draw up liquid water. Whether it's sweetwater or "brine" is yet to be determined.

My theory is that the bitter cold temperatures reported in the Martian air are meaningless WRT the ground temperature. Some time ago it was reported that there was a dramatic air temperature gradient, with the air at the surface level being very warm, IIRC in the 70 deg. F range.

The extremely thin Martian air would be a very poor conductor, so, it would not be very effective at bleeding off the ground heat either by conduction or convection.

Meanwhile, the ground would continue to soak up heat from the Sun, and retain it. If there is residual heat from the core, it could contribute to maintaining the heat. In essence, it would be sort of a "greenhouse effect", only based in the soil, rather than the atmosphere.

A "warm, wet Mars" from the ground level on down could easily be teeming with life. (And, those "blueberries" might actually be turds afterall!)

11 posted on 03/01/2004 2:33:52 PM PST by Don Joe (We've traded the Rule of Law for the Law of Rule.)
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To: Batrachian
every Mars Rover story has to mention the price of the mission

Scratch and Sniff will be seen as a tremendously inexpensive investment. The author has been very accurate in the past, so he probably has the inside dope.

12 posted on 03/01/2004 2:34:27 PM PST by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: Don Joe
will not 'fess up to the obvious evidence of life found by the rovers

Life??

Did I miss something?

13 posted on 03/01/2004 2:35:28 PM PST by Dog (Bin Laden your account to America is past due......time to pay up.)
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To: vannrox
I don't care. I won't care about it until they announce that Klingons and Vulcans live on the planet.
14 posted on 03/01/2004 2:37:51 PM PST by GulliverSwift (Keep the <a href="http://www.johnkerry.com/">gigolo</a> out of the White House!)
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To: vannrox
Wholly Cow!

I wish you wouldn't say that. It is very offensive to us Hindu followers.

If you said "tasty cow," that would be different.

15 posted on 03/01/2004 2:38:44 PM PST by GulliverSwift (Keep the <a href="http://www.johnkerry.com/">gigolo</a> out of the White House!)
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To: Don Joe
Interesting take Don.

I will have to agree, the announcement of life on Mars would be delayed as they do not know how to do it.

Like with most facts, you get it out and get it ALL out!

But, I shall await the dribs and dribbles as govt. is all too prone to do.

16 posted on 03/01/2004 2:39:22 PM PST by Cold Heat (In politics stupidity is not a handicap. --Napoleon Bonapart)
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To: vannrox
What a perfect place for a Palestinian State.
17 posted on 03/01/2004 2:43:47 PM PST by aynrandfreak (If 9/11 didn't change you, you're a bad human being)
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To: vannrox
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...
18 posted on 03/01/2004 2:47:03 PM PST by null and void (Same as it ever was...)
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To: Dog
Life??

Did I miss something?

Yes, much speculation. And some really nifty pictures of fossils...

19 posted on 03/01/2004 2:51:53 PM PST by null and void (Same as it ever was...)
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To: TruBluKentuckian
It's pretty much been agreed that the icecaps are water ice, but the possibility still remained that it was dry ice. Finding liquid water would decide it once and for all.

No the presence of water ice HAS been determined. They have even mapped which parts of the polar caps are ice and which are C02.

20 posted on 03/01/2004 2:52:59 PM PST by ElkGroveDan (Fighting for Freedom and Having Fun)
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