Spirit Finds Possible Evidence of Water on Mars

[TacticalPeek]

Spirit Finds Possible Evidence of Water on Mars
David McAlary
Washington
09 Jan 2004, 22:05 UTC

Less than a week after landing on
Mars, the U.S. Spirit spacecraft has
found possible evidence that water
once flowed on the now-barren
planet, the goal of the mission. The
scientists are cautious about their
interpretation.

Although the Spirit robotic rover
has not yet begun its trek over
Martian terrain, one of its scientific instruments has remotely
detected small amounts of a mineral in nearby soil that hint of
ancient water.

The instrument that did this is an infrared camera designed to
sense the composition of material from afar by measuring heat
emissions.

Mars mission scientist Phil Christensen says the presence of the
mineral, called carbonate, might mean its is a remnant of rocks
that formed in water from dissolved carbonate particles.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=507B634C-E180-4D2F-966EBB40268C1202

[darknemus]

1. Oh boy... buckle up, fundies.. the roller coaster is about to drop.

Water :).. now, if we can find any sort of organisms.. even microscopic ones from millions of years ago - there's gonna be all sorts of hell, pardon the pun.

Personally, I love it - and I say that as a church going, Sunday School Teaching (teen confirmation classes) guy. My kids (the teens) and I will probably discuss this in class Sunday and the possible implications thereof. Pretty cool :)

-darknemus

[htuttle]

4. I saw something about how they are looking for microorganisms

Apparently, it's possible for small drops of water to get trapped in salt. A scientist found such a piece of salt on earth, drilled into the drop of water, and some 200,000,000 year old micro-organisms sprung to life and began breeding as soon as food was introduced (don't worry -- it was all in a lab). Apparently, protozoans 'keep' for a long, long, long time.

They are hoping to find a similar bit of trapped water somewhere on Mars. (!)

[TacticalPeek]

7. The fundies could have an out, since its all interpretation at some level.

I think its John 10:11-13.

http://www.gutlesspacifist.com/peaceconnections/cycleb/eastb4.htm

[KDLarsen]

2. The more a reason..

... to get people on Mars ASAP - though I'd prefer if * would mind finishing up the two wars (three if you count the "war on terra") and a terrible deficit before commiting to such a costly adventure. I understand that the money spent will come back 7-fold, but what good is THAT going to do if the US will get an even greater deficit, which, according to the IMF, will hurt the world economy in the short run.

[aquart]

3. Velikovsky.

That's all.

[pinto]

11. good (obscure) answer!

[brainshrub]

5. I love it when the lads at NASA use scientific-y words,

it makes my nipples tingle.

"We always knew that we could egress in any direction and that the egress direction was going to be picked on the basis of safety," he said. "That's part of why we make sure to get a full 360 degree panoramic view. So we're going to be ready to pick targets, ready to do science no matter which direction the egress turns out to be."

Could't he just have said: "We can get off the platform and get to work in any direction." ???

[darknemus]

6. Yeah, but they have to justify that expensive education somehow :)

Besides, the word egress is so much more.. spacey ;)

I love when they say stuff like that - it amuses the hell out of me. Look at the bright side: It keeps chimpy boy having to ask for translations :evilgrin:

-darknemus

[Dookus]

13. heheh..

P.T. Barnum used to post signs in his displays saying "This way to the egress".

It kept people moving - they thought they were going to see something special and ended up outside.

[mike_c]

8. jeez, and I thought they were looking for the egret's direction....

How do you lose a big white bird on Mars?

[brainshrub]

12. LMAO!

That comment made my day.

[Lisa]

9. This is awesome!

I'm going to have to get a whole bunch of new planetary geomorphology books!

I took a course in hydrology during my MSc, and asked to do a seminar on ancient stream channels on purpose. I presented on how to reconstruct river flow regimes based on "fossil" evidence of old streambeds (e.g. buried under Saharan sand dunes, and detected by satellites). I didn't let on what I had in mind until the very end, when I started showing some old Mars Viking imagery ... it was really neat when the hard-core geeks in the class started nodding and saying, "you know, this could work ..."

[dave29]

10. it's the same magnesium carbonates

you find in toothpaste and cosmetics... which proves to me, early martian species were concerned about their appearance.