Water found on Mars
 

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Exp...KA808BE_0.html

Many of you are probably wondering why this is a big deal... This is the first time water was discovered on another planet. It does not mean that life existed on Mars -however -it means that our sort of life may have existed at one point on Mars.

For a big ass color picture of the crater click here:

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/...-CraterIce.jpg

very interesting...

This is pretty cool if it is for real.

First Step: Find Water

Second Step: Invade Mars

Third Step: Enjoy a Mint Mocha Frappucchino from the first Martian Starbucks, coming your way in 2010, baby!

Not if NASA has anything to do with it. :p


Exciting stuff.

In that big ass picture it kind of looks like it's glowing....

Every time i go to nasa or the ESA's page it always makes me wish i had a pair of 3D glasses :(

Holy shit! Bigass doesn't even begin to describe it. Think 6000x4800 px.

Cool picture. Just don't even think about it unless you're on broadband.

very awsome!!


:lol: i was totally expecting this picture when i opend the thread:


http://www.jones.com.au/flashLounge/waterOnMars.jpg

:p

That was so funny I pissed in your pants

That is a good thing that they found open ice. It makes the creation of permanent scientific communities viable. To quote maleficent - "Yay!" :)

double yay even... if there's ice -- I'm there -- if there's a starbucks== I'm totally there... :)

Bah, forget Starbucks, when does ski season start?

That is seriously cool stuff.

That would be one seriously cool piece of ice. See the whorls around the dunes at the top? Imagine 1/3 gravity and a pair of metal skis, with maybe a paraglider pack just in case.

I've never gone skiing in my life and I think that sounds great!

So has Haliburton already written the iron-clad contract no one can bid upon, to drill for oil next :)

Water on Mars is an amazing find. I'm just glad we have the ability to find out stuff like this. Very, very cool.

You're all wrong. When the first manned mission lands on Mars, they'll discover Starbucks has been there for the past 5 years.

Either way, this is an amazing find.

My question is, have they sampled it and made sure from tests that it really is water? Just because it's not dry ice doesn't mean it has to be (water) ice.

Aquafox - you're hilarious. I haven't had a mars bar for years.

I don't know if I entirely believe that this is a patch of water. I mean, they've been searching for water on mars for the past 2 decades at least... only now they're finding it? Has our space photography technology really advanced that significantly? Makes me wonder what kind of half-hearted searches they did in the past. It has been at least a decade since they determined several valleys and canyons on Mars were carved by ancient lakes, rivers, oceans, etc. Why did it take them so long to find this random patch of remaining ice? Anyone know when they're going to stop speculating and start digging up Mars for fossils?

The answer is YES. These are high resolution photos taken by a new spacecraft.


For people who want a bigger photo but not the Big Ass one posted before. Here is another link to a photo that is large but not 'big ass'.

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/...raterIce_H.jpg

Life On Mars
David Bowie

It's a god-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling "No"
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a saddening bore
For she's lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

It's on Amerikas tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibeza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But the film is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more
It's about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

As astrocloud said, yes, photographic technology has advanced a lot. Just think back to what was available five years ago vs. today.

As for lazy searching, a planet is a BIG place and it's really hard to examine one closely from millions of miles away. And from 1976-1997 there were no satellite probes sent, all observation was from earth. Currently, there are only three orbiters around mars right now, just imagine how many pictures they would have to take to cover the entire surface of mars at close resolution, and then how many people it would take to examine each of those photos (not to mention transmission time).

Mage & Astrocloud, thanks for setting me straight. With only three orbiters, I understand why it would take so long to photograph the entire red planet.

This is hugely exciting... I think we've found our next landing site. The upper layers of that substabce (which I believe is water, because if they can tell what's in an atmosphere from the colors ona picture, they can tell this isw water) could provide a huge wealth of knowledge about mars' atmosphereic history, chemical content, and also provide a location for manned exploration as water is Vital in all aspects.

So how long does it take to go from a discovery like this to landing a probe in that crater to perform more tests? I'm guessing the paperwork/budgit approval process would be the logest, and then there is all the mission planning and technology that needs to go into such a mission.

Now if they can find water near the equator then we'll be in business. The poles are simply too cold to set up a permenant settlement, the equator is the closest thing to livable with an average temp of 0 degrees celsius.

I concur....