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. 
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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.
"Illudium Pu-36 Explosive Space Modulator" placemarker... ;)
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?
"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
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
That, and consulting Richard C. Hoagland on the matter. You do know he's friends with Walter Cronkite and Arthur Clarke?
(-:
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?"
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?"
Hillary, is that you?
Better than coming up with short-sighted utopic schemes, one after another. 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!
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.
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.
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