NASA News Conference on Mars ~~~~ Live Thread

[MineralMan]

"Large amounts of bromine, heterogeneously distributed."

Interesting. That sounds like just a few localized spots here on Earth. Bromine compounds aren't all that common as naturally-occurring minerals here on this planet.

Sounds like a poisonous sort of pool.

[RightWhale]

Regolith under the water bodies would have been saturated and might still be. Bedrock might also have cracks filled with ice, and that ice would be pure water by now. They will have to send drillbot, and then if it taps a vein of ice they can start designing the marsbase.

[mikegi]

If Mars had oceans, where's the water now? Is it frozen at the poles, captured in rocks, etc? Also, how much warmer must Mars have been to support an ocean? How did it first gain the warmth then lose it???

[LibWhacker]

Try here if you're still having problems. I'm listening to it there myself. Sound works. Comcast stinks.

[BenLurkin]

Oh yes. Probably pretty shallow but covered much of the planet (My guess)

"Life" advanced to maybe the single cell or even primitive organisms but then the water "evaporated" into space and it was curtains for the little critters. (Also my guess)

[mitchbert]

And of course, the implication of finding fossiles is that there would have to have been a food chain to sustain them.

[BenLurkin]

Lost into space, most of it. Mars is just too small.

[Diogenesis]

This was a habitable environment on Mars based upon texture and morphology of rocks.

[mitchbert]

How did it first gain the warmth then lose it???

Just blind guessing here, but it is possible that Mars wasn't always as far from the sun as it is now?

[LibWhacker]

Cool explanation of cross-bedding. Never heard it before.

[John H K]

No, it had enough atmopshere to retain heat, but lost the atmosphere. Orbit hasn't changed radically or anything.

[RightWhale]

How did it first gain the warmth then lose it???

During initial formation it would have been very warm, perhaps molten. Then it cooled, but asteroidal debris would have added energy to the system for quite a while. Now it has cooled to ambient temperature and the mass is much smaller than earth's mass, so it wouldn't have as much internal heating by radioactive decay. Mars is going to stay cold until we do certain public works projects there.

[Frank_Discussion]

I wonder if a process related to the creation and stabilization of the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter may have expanded Mars' orbit?

[Diogenesis]

Concave Martial "smiles" as evidence of crossbedding
based upon terrestrial sand-water models (MIT).

"Smiles" have a size ~ 1cm.

Open upward concave geometries declare the previous running water.

[js1138]

Zappas rule. But the cooking show is kind of lame. They did an entire show on pancake breakfasts and never played "Electric Aunt Jemima".

[threat matrix]

They have discovered Mars is gay!

Nope, it must be that Mars wants to get married to Mercury in a civil ceremony..

[Little Pig]

If the ocean was shallow, it probably drained into the bedrock, just like the earth is doing as we speak. In another few million years, the ocean beds will be mostly empty.

[Diogenesis]

Martial water flow rates ~ 1-2 klicks per hour

Seems that those who considered the possibility of Martian artifacts were correct to do so.
NASA owes them a very big apology.

[RayChuang88]

It also means the ASU-built Phoenix landers (which will be launched in 2007) and the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory rover (which will be about the size of a sub-compact automobile!) will likely carry very advanced spectrometers to look specifically for chemical signals for life in the past, just like we look the chemical makeup of fossilized rocks on Earth with spectrometers.

It'll be interesting to see if the European Space Agency will want to launch its own larger-sized rover to look for signs of life (past and present); they certainly have a powerful enough rocket with the Ariane V to launch a rover almost the size of a sub-compact automobile.

[RightWhale]

The total mass of all the asteroids is far short of another planet, so the gravitational interchange effects would have been minor to Mars. Jupiter would be the major influence on the Asteroid Belt, but probably Mars swept up a few asteroids, and some of the collisions were monstrous. By the time the energy exchanges were mostly over, Mars would have begun to cool and would be in its present orbit.