This shure does look like water!!!
Has there already been a thread created for this?
Posted on 07/01/2004 12:31:29 PM PDT by Pokey78
MARS was not only awash with water, it also once had rainfall, according to a new French study.
The evidence comes from infra-red imaging, which probed under dust deposited over the millions of years and found dense networks of dry valleys, whose branching bear the hallmarks of having been carved out by rain.
The research, published in the US journal Science on Friday, could prompt a rewrite of the Martian history books, for it suggests the planet had a longer "summer" than anyone thought.
The conventional theory is that Mars had a balmy climate during its infancy, a period called the Noachian era, in which vast volumes of water flowed on its surface, cutting valleys and eroding the craters left by asteroids.
Then, around 3.6 billion years ago - coincidentally, just when the first signs of life emerged on Earth - the planet froze, entering the so-called Hesperian epoch, which lasted around half a billion years.
What remained as water has almost always been locked up as ice, either at the poles or (so it is hoped) close to the surface, according to this theory.
The French study, led by Nicolas Mangold of the University of Paris South, contends though that the rain-carved valleys date from near the end of the Hesperian - at a time when the temperature was, supposedly, far too cold to permit precipitation.
Their analysis is based on data sent back the thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), which has been scanning the planet since October 2001 aboard a NASA orbiter, Mars Odyssey.
THEMIS' images show images of valleys with extensive branching, typical of the erosion on Earth caused by rainwater, as well as meandering curves and inner channels on the valley floors.
This is another judgement of God on His creation?
And then George Bush, Republicans, Big Oil and Haliburton introduced the SUV at the Martian Auto Show.
Current THEORY also says the sun was a lot hotter and the earth like an oven about that time.
It looks like the Corps of Engineers may be needed to determine if all of Mars should be declared wetlands.
Should have held Wimbledon there this year.
"............French study."
Remember, they have to drink their own wine these days since they can't export it.
LOL
(Hope you guys are all o.k.)
:-)
/john
If we were able to convince Bush that the Martians have WMD, then can we go to Mars?
Don't you mean the French Open (which is played on clay)?
Hasahmayim wet?
How the hell would the French know anything about Mars? Their little robot never survived the landing....hehehehehe.
What the hell happened to those Martian "canals?" Heinlein knew about them, in fact in his sci-fi books, Martian colonists used ice-skates for transportation!
Now the Frogs turn this into big news? Qu'est que c'est, mes amis?
This shure does look like water!!!
Has there already been a thread created for this?
This sure does look like water!!!
Yes, but they can always tell you the next day after it did rain.
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