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Life clues on Red Planet
bbcnews.com ^ | may-24-2003 | By Dr David Whitehouse

Posted on 05/24/2003 1:46:37 PM PDT by green team 1999

Life clues on Red Planet

By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor

Scientists may have identified what could be the best place to look for life on the Red Planet. It is the Russell Crater in Mars' southern hemisphere. ............
The Russell Crater dunefield,.............Mudflows might occur today
Observations of the region made during the local autumn and spring, when frost covers the dunes and then recedes, indicate liquid water could be present on the surface at certain times of the year.

Detailed analysis suggests this water could be mixing with soil to create frequent mudflows.

"The water we believe is there means that it could be the best place we know of so far where you could dig into the surface to look for life," researcher Dr Dennis Reiss told BBC News Online.

Freeze thaw

"There are extraordinary features in Russell Crater, features resembling terrestrial mudflows," said Dr Reiss, of the German Aerospace Centre.

He has studied high-resolution images from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in orbit around the planet. He has concluded the mudflows could be the youngest features on Mars, perhaps even being formed from time to time during the present day.

In particular, Dr Reiss measured the temperature of the surface along with its reflectivity, technically called its albedo.

These two quantities told him a lot about what is going on in the dunes.

The albedo indicates if the surface is frozen or thawed and the temperature provides clues about what types of ice and liquid are present.

When spring comes

When winter arrives at Russell Crater, water vapour and carbon dioxide condense out of Mars' thin atmosphere and frost the dunes. The albedo and temperature readings indicate that during the spring thaw, the frozen carbon dioxide sublimates - turns into a gas - leaving a thawed surface containing liquid water.

"It could be that in the first couple of centimetres of the surface there is liquid water, possibly even on the surface as well," Dr Reiss said.

"In this place, for a few hours each day, just after noon in the summer, there could be liquid water on the surface of Mars."

Faraway missions

Such a possibility is exciting for those wishing to look for life on the planet.

It is generally believed that to find life on Mars, one should try to find water.

However, none of the spacecraft set for a Mars landing this year are due to go anywhere near the Russell Crater.

The European Beagle 2 will land on the arid plain of Issidis, about 10 degrees north of the equator.

It is a site chosen to be warm enough for Beagle to work and low enough for Beagle's parachutes to allow a safe landing.

The two US rovers, also due for launch next month, will touch down near the equator, halfway around the planet from each other.

Dennis Reiss and Ralf Jaumann publish their work on Russell Crater in Geophysical Research Letters.

for information and discusion only,not for profit etc,etc.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: mars; southpole; water
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To: RadioAstronomer
I was not impugning anyone who participated in a NASA space mission. Those missions are based on proven science, physics, aerodynamics, etc. But there do seem to many to be some associated with NASA that announce some new finding that appeals to the pop-science crowd, and then on further study they slowly back away during the months after [as in the case with the "Mars rocks" which were touted originally as virtual proof of life on Mars]. I won't believe anyone who says that NASA doesn't engage in self-beneficial PR. But maybe I've read too many articles by individuals commenting on NASA data, not articles produced by NASA itself.
41 posted on 05/24/2003 9:18:09 PM PDT by razorbak
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To: longshadow

Har, har, har, now drop the mouse and step away from the keyboard!

The gang's all here!

42 posted on 05/24/2003 9:21:54 PM PDT by Jeremiah Jr (Free Your Mind...5:15 DEBARIM)
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43 posted on 05/24/2003 9:22:30 PM PDT by Consort
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To: longshadow; RadioAstronomer
Where's the ka-boom?

"Illudium Pu-36 Explosive Space Modulator" placemarker... ;)

44 posted on 05/24/2003 9:24:42 PM PDT by general_re (When you step on the brakes, you're putting your life in your foot's hands...)
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To: RightWhale

"The search for life on Mars is a distraction only, and not an acceptable program for our scientists and countries. We are aiming far below our capability. There should be a manned expedition to Mars underway already with the intent to found a settlement or at least a science outpost eventually. There may or may not be life on Mars now, but there will be as soon as we get the program in gear. " -- RightWhale

You mean, we can just assume that Mars is for the taking? What if our colonization efforts create a slave state with the local folks or something?
45 posted on 05/24/2003 9:41:33 PM PDT by Buckeroo
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To: razorbak
The God of the Bible is proclaimed to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, with an majesty that is infinitely incomprehensible in its totality. If God exists, and he is such a God, this Self-Existent One, the Eternal I AM, would have no more need to creat 1,000 planets with life than only 1. His glory would not be enhanced or diminished regardless of which number is correct. If such a God chose to create life on other planets, then it exists whether we will ever know it or not. But the evolutionist NEEDS life to exist because, when certain conditions are right, especially the presence of water, and enough time is available, his belief in spontaneous generation makes it virtually inevitable that life will spring from inanimate material again and again.

RB,

Before you go telling God what he needs to do or not do, try reading His Word. You might find that He didn't need to do any of it but did he did it just because He wanted to.

Revalation 4:11
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

However you will soon have the opportunity to discuss this with Him personally, if you think he over did it.

Regards,
Boiler Plate

46 posted on 05/24/2003 9:43:16 PM PDT by Boiler Plate
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To: Jeremiah Jr
Marvin was simply the funniest character in the whole Looney line up.
47 posted on 05/24/2003 9:49:25 PM PDT by Boiler Plate
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To: chimera
Well, I hope they decided on a single measurement system when designing and building one or the other.

That, and consulting Richard C. Hoagland on the matter. You do know he's friends with Walter Cronkite and Arthur Clarke?
(-:

48 posted on 05/24/2003 10:34:39 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Boiler Plate
You missed where I'm coming from, friend. I agree wholeheartedly with the verse you quoted, and I am intimately acquainted with the Amighty on the basis of Christ's finished work of redemption. I did not say God needed to do or didn't need to do anything. I was arguing against the view that God needed to creat life on one planet or 1000. I was postulating what some people say about God, not my own view. And by the way, I look forward to meeting my Maker and my Redeemer whether it happens at the time of my death, or at the Second Coming of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Psa.115:2 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? 3 But our God is in the heavens: He has done whatsoever he has pleased.

Daniel 4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, "What have You done?"

49 posted on 05/25/2003 1:08:24 AM PDT by razorbak
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To: Boiler Plate
You missed where I'm coming from, friend. I agree wholeheartedly with the verse you quoted, and I am intimately acquainted with the Amighty on the basis of Christ's finished work of redemption. I did not say God needed to do or didn't need to do anything. I was arguing against the view that God needed to creat life on one planet or 1000. I was postulating what some people say about God, not my own view. And by the way, I look forward to meeting my Maker and my Redeemer whether it happens at the time of my death, or at the Second Coming of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Psa.115:2 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? 3 But our God is in the heavens: He has done whatsoever he has pleased.

Daniel 4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, "What have You done?"

50 posted on 05/25/2003 1:08:24 AM PDT by razorbak
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To: PatrickHenry
Placemarker.
51 posted on 05/25/2003 3:51:49 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
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To: Buckeroo
What if our colonization efforts create a slave state with the local folks or something?

Hillary, is that you?

52 posted on 05/25/2003 11:38:55 AM PDT by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: RightWhale
What on Earth, do you mean? You call me "Hillary" because you loathe my bearing against the pubbies, a do nothing political party that started out creating the Great War between the North and the South.

Still, you don't know "squat." What ashame.
53 posted on 05/25/2003 11:47:18 AM PDT by Buckeroo
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To: Buckeroo
the pubbies, a do nothing political party

Better than coming up with short-sighted utopic schemes, one after another. On to Mars!

54 posted on 05/25/2003 12:11:03 PM PDT by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: RightWhale
On to Mars!

Mars isn't worth diddly. There are probably far better worlds out there. Millions of them. We have to go farther, faster. Ad astra!

55 posted on 05/25/2003 12:15:25 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
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To: RightWhale
So, you carry the concept of "Manifest Destiny" deep in your heart. Who will pay for your deals?
56 posted on 05/25/2003 12:19:55 PM PDT by Buckeroo
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To: Buckeroo
Actually, Mars is being used symbolically as well as being an objective goal. While the masses are teeming to Mars, I plan to be headed out there, but to a destination with a more interesting balance sheet.

Being aware that concentration of resources is the key to success in social capitalism, when someone suggests that an isolated private sector person should do all these massive space projects out of his own pocket, then that someone is obviously arguing about where our industrial army should be deployed. Those who insist that space exploration should be left to a captain of industry might be the same as those who think the tax cut benefits the rich only.

57 posted on 05/25/2003 12:28:45 PM PDT by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: RightWhale
Do you realize how much Karl Marx has inspired your thoughts?
58 posted on 05/25/2003 12:35:15 PM PDT by Buckeroo
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To: Buckeroo
Do you realize how much Karl Marx has inspired your thoughts?

Yes. So happens I do. Marx was a piker, the German rationalists hit an iceberg. The real deal was Bellamy and the Populists, now known as the left wing of the Dem Party. H G Wells' Utopias make my backhairs raise up, and that makes me basically conservative.

The resources of outer space should be developed, and that is possible by concentration of industrial resources, not as a socialist TVA program but by granting easements and licenses to capitalists. Carnegie, Rockefeller, that kind of thing, Captains of Industry, aka robber barons. Truth, Justice, and The American Way.

59 posted on 05/25/2003 12:52:13 PM PDT by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: RightWhale
Why should government have the authority to "grant" any license about space exploration? Are you, in fact, saying that government owns ALL rights to explore? What about in my backyard; based upon your ideas, I require government to permit me the prospect of digging up rocks.

60 posted on 05/25/2003 1:12:20 PM PDT by Buckeroo
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