NASA Images Suggest Water Flows in Brief Spurts on Mars

http://www.spacefellowship.com/News/?p=1729

[quote][color=black]NASA photographs have revealed bright new deposits seen in two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them sometime during the past seven years.

“These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars,â€

Well it could be anything. It could be liquid CO2 or any other gass that has a liquid form at a temperature of about -100 degr. C.

But i thought the problem was the lack of pressure that water would simply evaporate if it got to a liquid state.

G'day

It has been shown that briney liquid water can exist on Mars. The humidy there is nearly 100% so evaporation rates are not high. I wrote about it here:

http://chamberland.blogspot.com/2006/03 ... rs_04.html

But the real expert is this fellow:

http://xenotechresearch.com/cgi/wp/index.php?cat=2

ta

Ralph

Thanks for the links Ralph, didn't know they actually determined that the ice on the poles were waterice. I thought there still was/is some debate wether it really is waterice.

They have determined that the residual summer polar cap is not carbon dioxide because it is too warm. I suppose it could still be something other than water, but everyone is pretty sure it is water ice. Anyway, it is definitely not dry ice.

During the press conference the one guy said that it would indeed evaporate, but would instantly freeze and fall as frost/snow. Which would explain how the flow, which would be very muddy and silt-filled, shows as bright water ice.

G'day,

The discovery of liquid water on Mars is a two edged sword for space advocates. Its a good thing because it makes native Martian life more likely and water esential for settlement.

Its a bad because we have to take the danger of contamination very seriously. A Martian bug could run rampant throughout Earths rich biosphere.

I used to be pretty much a Mars Now supporter but now believe a moon base is essentiall before we start exploring the planets. The moon is an excellent location for a quarantined research lab which would study extraterrestrial life.

ta

Ralph

Just because Mars *might* currently have isolated pockets of not quite frozen solid H20 is a long long way from proof that it has or ever had life.

A much likely threat is of a lowly common Earth microbe mutated by cosmic radiation into a vicious pathogen.

So I agree one of the necessary steps in the future will be the establishment of quarantine "firewalls" at the moon and LEO for anything coming Earth-side.

If you thought airport security was a pain, you haven't seen anything yet...