UP!!! 8^)
Posted on 03/15/2007 2:23:26 PM PDT by Sopater
Mars is unlikely to sport beachfront property any time soon, but the planet has enough water ice at its south pole to blanket the entire planet in more than 30 feet of water if everything thawed out.
With a radar technique, astronomers have penetrated for the first time about 2.5 miles (nearly four kilometers) beneath the south pole's frozen surface.
The data showed that nearly pure water ice lies beneath.
• Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Space Center.
Discovered in the early 1970s, layered deposits of ice and dust cap the north and south poles of Mars. Until now, the deposits have been difficult to study closely with existing telescopes and satellites.
The current advance comes from a probe of the deposits using an instrument aboard the Mars Express orbiter.
"This is the first time that a ground-penetrating system has ever been used on Mars," said the new radar study's lead author, Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "All the other instruments used to study the surface of Mars in the past really have only been sensitive to what occurs at the very surface."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
If we get pics of Martian polar bears drowning, Al Gore is a lock for president.
UP!!! 8^)
I hope so. Because if there are, that means that THERE'S BEER ON MARS!
From other articles I've read about it today, it's just how much water is in the ice cap. The ice cap is 4 km thick and is 90% water.
It is essentially on the surface or nearly. It could be mined open-pit. It's really cold at the Martian poles, an interesting challenge for those who survive the interplanetary trip to get there.
They'll be free, but they will also be some kind of religious association--90% sure about that. That's where they build monasteries: on the edge of civilization in the woods way out of the way of secular life. There is no place like that on earth anymore, so look a little farther.
What a sound, and obviously environmentally-based idea! Doing this will be an extraordinary way to honor the Earth! Hear, hear! Count me in (I'm willing to invest my money in your 'green' project - just like algore does, in similar, equally valuable projects ;>)...
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