Martian Skies

The Boston Globe ^ | June 20, 2008 | Alan Taylor

[rarestia]

Yesterday's announcement by NASA of the discovery of water ice on Mars by its Phoenix Lander probe made big news everywhere. The discovery involved the observation of water ice sublimating into the air - that is, the water went from solid to vapor state without reaching the liquid stage. The Martian atmosphere has perfect conditions for sublimation - extremely thin, dry and cold. How cold? Well, you can check the Live Martian Weather Report, with data from a station on board the Phoenix Lander. Today will see a high temperature of a toasty -26 degrees F.

What more do we know about Mars' atmosphere? It's hundreds of times thinner than Earth's atmosphere and is made of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and contains traces of oxygen, water, and methane. We also know, from observations that it can support dust storms, dust devils, clouds and gusty winds. With an amazing number of six current live probes exploring Mars (two rovers, a lander, and three orbiters), there are many thousands of images available. Only a few, however show atmospheric phenomena. Presented here are some of the best images of Martian atmosphere (and beyond) in action. (17 photos total)

[eagles_lair]

I hate to burst some Bubbles but does this get your attention? (IT'S SHOW AND TELL TIME).

One of many I've found on Mars, in Henry Crater.

BIRD CATCHING MEAL

(A Link to my Flickr Photo Page)

[eldoradude]

couple of fern seeds, some dinosaur DNA, and viola.

A great new addition to the FReeper lexicon!

[going hot]

when you’re swave and deboner, it’s voy la

[I see my hands]

And green vegetation!

[BlazingArizona]

couple of fern seeds, some dinosaur DNA, and viola.

And the viola would still have a US Air luggage tag attached to it.

[Grizzled Bear]

If there were some way to get the water into the atmosphere to trap more heat, with all that CO2, we could plant some kind of green vegetation and viola - oxygen and atmosphere!

No viola. How about Banjo?

[going hot]

the viola is for the mood music, you know, for the ferns and such

[Mom MD]

dont know, I will ask my husband the chemical engineer if he might know where to look it up

[Marie]

We would also need to find a means of setting up a massive magnetic field around the planet.

This has been the part of the puzzle which has been stymieing me.

[Marie]

Check out numbers 23-27 and to really get your attention, number 47.

Print out 47 and start to play with the image by connecting the triangles. (Remember that they’re *very* large and all the same size.) It almost looks like they’re arranged in a circle within a circle formation.

This drove me crazy a few years ago! lol!

[neverdem]

Phoenix Touches Martian Ice