NASA's Mars announcement

[bill]

The word from JPL is that liquid water once "drenched" the area that rover Opportunity is exploring.


NASA TV

[Cush]

1. CNN has it

[LibInternationalist]

2. freakin' KICK

this is awesome -- a habitable environment, liquid ground water (!)

[Beetwasher]

3. Yup, I knew it! More updates please!

I'm in a cube...I've been so psyched about this...

[LibInternationalist]

8. they're "equivocally" saying that the rocks might have been IN water

on the surface -- now they're bringing out the detailed geologic evidence, but I unfortunately have to eat and get to class now -- someone else, hopefully with a better understanding of geology, will have to take over

[Emperor_Norton_II]

4. ...wait, did you say "liquid?"

More importantly, did THEY say "liquid?"

[Beetwasher]

5. It's what I suspected

probably brine-like kept liquid by the salts...If that's in fact what they said. They were hinting about it though in the articles I've read...I'm cubed and not watching though...

[Emperor_Norton_II]

9. Yeah, but did -they- say it?

I'm working with the scant data people are posting here (cube monkey here, too). So far I've heard that there was lots of water in the area, but what about is?

[Beetwasher]

11. Not clear to me either

:shrug:

Waiting/hoping for more updates...

[Qutzupalotl]

13. It would have to be "was"

Not enough of an atmosphere to support "is"

[Beetwasher]

15. Not necessarily true

A brine-like substance could conceivably remain liquid and exist just under the surface...

[Zero Gravitas]

20. brine

that was/is one of the hypotheses to explain the apparent clumping of the soils. Just one idea out of several and I don't know how well it has held up under subsequent data.

[Emperor_Norton_II]

18. Not necessarily

A brine solution could survive under the right conditions - the salt would keep the water from freezing. They were suspecting that both Spirit and Opportunity landed in brine flats due to the odd coloration of the rock.

[bill]

10. yep, liquid

evidence of stratified layers in rock, iron sulfide hydride (?, I'm into bio not chem) - a mineral associated with water on Earth, evidence of crystal formation.

SCIENCE! :-)

edit - the mineral in question is Jarosite

[Beetwasher]

14. But Past or current liquid?

n/t

[Zero Gravitas]

17. past

[Ediacara]

6. data?

sedimentary structures? secondary minerals? what? :-)

[Zero Gravitas]

16. all of the above?

Here is a great source for information: http://www.spaceflightnow.com./mars/mera/status.html

[jpak]

24. Photos suggest concretions (precipitation crystals) in finely bedded rock

(again my on the fly interpretation)

on edit

the crystals grew within the bedding layers...

[bryant69]

7. It is nice to see enthusiasm for this

I believe in the value of the space program; but many leftists do seem to feel that closing down NASA would be great.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Screaming Lord Byron]

12. No, we don't want to close down NASA, but we don't want it to be used as

political capital by a floundering incumbent. We value NASA, but within a set list of priorities.

[bryant69]

29. Well I feel the same way

But there are others on the left who think that supporting NASA drains money away from more worthy projects, like HUD or Social Security or so on.

[jpak]

19. Evidence for evaporative mineral sequence

brine may have been similar to that found in present Dead Sea...

evidence for sulfate (MgSO4)

(my on the fly translation...going too fast!!)

Missed the first few minutes - what did they say about the blueberries?????

[Zero Gravitas]

22. "blueberries"

not confined to one layer so its less likely they are volcanic in origin.

[jpak]

26. Boy - I'd like to section one of those blueberries

I bet they are chocked full of intriguing info....

too freaking cool!

[Minstrel Boy]

32. They have been

I didn't save the link, but yesterday I saw a photo from JPL of two blueberries that had been sectioned by the rover. They were blue all the way through.

[jpak]

33. Well I hope they found the seeds then...

grrrrrrrrrrr.....

:)

[Az]

21. Mars was once drenched with water

http://science.slashdot.org/science/04/03/02/1913211.shtml

NASA is currently holding a press conference (carried live on NASA TV) where they are discussing findings from the Mars rovers. They are saying that the crater that the second rover has landed in has convincing evidence that it was once drenched or covered in liquid water. They cite the tiny spherules, odd holes in the rocks, sulfur in the spectrometric analyses, and evidence of an iron sulfate hydrate (a hydrate is a chemical compound which includes water molecules in the crystal lattice). More to come.

[Emperor_Norton_II]

23. Rover finds evidence that Mars could once have supported life

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/8086981.htm

WASHINGTON - Mars rover Opportunity has found evidence that the Red Planet was once wet enough for life to exist there, but the robot has not found any direct traces of living organisms, NASA scientists announced Tuesday.

"Opportunity has landed in an area of Mars where liquid water once drenched the surface," said Edward Weiler, associate NASA administrator for space science, at a news conference. "This area would have been a good, habitable environment."

A study of a fine, layered rock by the rover detected evidence of sulfates and other minerals that form in the presence of water. The finding suggests that if there had been life present when the rocks were formed, then the living conditions could have permitted an organism to flourish. The study, however, has found no direct evidence of life.

"NASA launched the Mars Exploration Rover mission specifically to check whether at least one part of Mars had a persistently wet environment that could possibly have been hospitable to life," James Garvin, a lead NASA scientist, said in a statement. "Today we have strong evidence for an exciting answer: Yes."

(more in link)

:party:

[moondust]

25. Was Mars once closer to the sun?

Wouldn't there be a fossil record preserved in the cold temperatures?

[Emperor_Norton_II]

27. Um, not really.

Mars has been at roughly the same distance from the Sun since it was formed, and cold has little to do with fossilization - it's the replacement of minerals in bone with minerals from the surrounding rock.

If the Opportunity rocks really are sedimentary, then if there's any fossils to be found on Mars, that's where they'll be. Paging Drs. Bakker and Horner...

[moondust]

28. Thanks!

n/t

[DrWeird]

30. It's likely the atmosphere was much thicker...

and therefore able to support much higher temperatures. The atmosphere slowly evaporated into space, since Mar's gravity is much lower than our own, the water froze, and then sublimed.

Apparently the same thing will happen here eventually.

[jpak]

31. Now discussing the need to bring samples back to earth

needed to examine sulfur isotope fractionation as evidence for life...

[maveric]

34. How will the religious whackos explain this?

n/t

[Zero Gravitas]

35. Its a test of faith

Gawd-uh placed evidence of water on Mars as a test of our faith because apparently it says in the Bible that there is no water on Mars or something. Why do people seem to think that water or even life on Mars is a threat to the fundies? I don't think their holy book says anything about other planets.