Water And Possibility Of Life Found On Mars
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J.J._Evans
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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/science/space/mars-life-liquid-water.html
NASA Confirms Signs of Water Flowing on Mars, Possible Niches for Life
Scientists have for the first time confirmed liquid water flowing on the surface of present-day Mars, a finding that will add to speculation that life, if it ever arose there, could persist now.
“This is tremendously exciting,” James L. Green, the director of NASA’s planetary science division, said during a news conference on Monday. “We haven’t been able to answer the question, ‘Does life exist beyond Earth?’ But following the water is a critical element of that. We now have, I think, great opportunities in the right locations on Mars to thoroughly investigate that.”
That represents a shift in tone for NASA, where officials have repeatedly played down the notion that the dusty and desolate landscape of Mars could be inhabited today.
But now, John M. Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science, talked of sending a spacecraft in the 2020s to one of these regions, perhaps with experiments to directly look for life.
“I can’t imagine that it won’t be a high priority with the scientific community,” he said.
Although Mars had rivers, lakes and maybe even an ocean a few billion years ago, the modern moisture is modest — small patches of damp soil, not pools of standing water.
In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists identified waterlogged molecules — salts of a type known as perchlorates — on the surface in readings from orbit.
“That’s a direct detection of water in the form of hydration of salts,” said Alfred S. McEwen, a professor of planetary geology at the University of Arizona, the principal investigator of images from a high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and one of the authors of the new paper. “There pretty much has to have been liquid water recently present to produce the hydrated salt.”
By “recently,” Dr. McEwen said he meant “days, something of that order.”
Scientists have long known that large amounts of water remain — but frozen solid in the polar ice caps. There have been fleeting hints of recent liquid water, like fresh-looking gullies, but none have proved convincing.
In 2011, Dr. McEwen and colleagues discovered in photographs from the orbiter dark streaks descending along slopes of craters, canyons and mountains. The streaks lengthened during summer, faded as temperatures cooled, then reappeared the next year.
Comments
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That's that ? they told u wasn't no water on Mars next thing they gonna say it's a atmosphere it's just cold, next thing after that we'll it ain't that cold, but it's a ? eating bacteria on the planet lol
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Now white folks gonna go colonize and ? up Mars
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vagrant-718 wrote: »Now white folks gonna go colonize and ? up Mars
Mars is already ? up -
What they don't tell u is mars was destroyed by nuclear warfare we are the original Martians
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Inb4 that Martian ? is the truth and they love ? too
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I'm telling y'all now. That's the official "Earth is in trouble, tickets to the highest builder" announcement.
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Ain't no crips on Mars
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Red rocks!
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YAY YAY!
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What they don't tell u is mars was destroyed by nuclear warfare we are the original Martians
dont know if you playing but it feel like it could be true.
I have always thought human life is way older than we know.
but not sure about the nuclear warfare. im thinking asteriod. ends life on mars creates life on earth.
but its all theories.
does anyone know if mars has a moving surface like earth.
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Wait I thought Obama had shut down the nasa program. ...
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Space and the ocean always catches my attention.
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Microscopic life doesn't count.
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We should really be looking for ways to extract resources from mars and not worry and finding life. It will most likely only be a few microbes anyway
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Creflo Gimme Dollar said he would ask for a billion dollars to preach the word if they found life on Mars.
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They put too much importance on finding water in places IMO. It's not even close to the only important thing that's necessary to sustain life as we know it. And there is a good possibility that it's not required for life in general. I mean Earth based lifeforms need it, but there is nothing saying that environments unlike Earth can't spawn life that doesn't require water to exist.
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We should really be looking for ways to extract resources from mars and not worry and finding life. It will most likely only be a few microbes anyway
You are white. "? if anything or anyone lives in there they got resources!" -
I am not white and i am sure there is no intelligent life on mars. I REALLY wish my race would get with the ? program and stop being such ? wimps. You fools are actually worried that we might disturb life that won't be more developed than bacteria . The potential profits to mankind can be so grand and the possible wealth the mining of space will produce can be astronomical -
THE ? mining of space could be the end of material scarcity so ? any single cell lifeforms on mars asteroids or anyother dead planet. ? is wrong with you people???
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I am not white and i am sure there is no intelligent life on mars. I REALLY wish my race would get with the ? program and stop being such ? wimps. You fools are actually worried that we might disturb life that won't be more developed than bacteria . The potential profits to mankind can be so grand and the possible wealth the mining of space will produce can be astronomical
You don't know ? about space. You probably read some ? about mining asteroids and you bought in. That ? is expensive as ? and anything you mine from it will be expensive as ? for the consumer.
You just have that rapacious ? mentality where its all about stealing, muhfuckas still debating whether the is life on Mars and you already got your eye on poaching. -
I am not white and i am sure there is no intelligent life on mars. I REALLY wish my race would get with the ? program and stop being such ? wimps. You fools are actually worried that we might disturb life that won't be more developed than bacteria . The potential profits to mankind can be so grand and the possible wealth the mining of space will produce can be astronomical
You don't know ? about space. You probably read some ? about mining asteroids and you bought in. That ? is expensive as ? and anything you mine from it will be expensive as ? for the consumer.
You just have that rapacious ? mentality where its all about stealing, muhfuckas still debating whether the is life on Mars and you already got your eye on poaching.
everything having to do with going to space is expensive all the more reason why if we choose to go we have to keep an eye for attaining a good return on investment. STEALING who would we be stealing from??? ? there are no intelligent aliens on mars -
Coming soon from Nestle, $1,000 a bottle
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I am not white and i am sure there is no intelligent life on mars. I REALLY wish my race would get with the ? program and stop being such ? wimps. You fools are actually worried that we might disturb life that won't be more developed than bacteria . The potential profits to mankind can be so grand and the possible wealth the mining of space will produce can be astronomical
You don't know ? about space. You probably read some ? about mining asteroids and you bought in. That ? is expensive as ? and anything you mine from it will be expensive as ? for the consumer.
You just have that rapacious ? mentality where its all about stealing, muhfuckas still debating whether the is life on Mars and you already got your eye on poaching.
everything having to do with going to space is expensive all the more reason why if we choose to go we have to keep an eye for attaining a good return on investment. STEALING who would we be stealing from??? ? there are no intelligent aliens on mars
You don't know that first of all, secondly taking something that doesn't belong to you defines stealing.
