Archive
Pebbly Rocks Testify to Old Streambed On Mars
May 30, 2013 — Detailed analysis and review have borne out researchers’ initial interpretation of pebble-containing slabs that NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity investigated last year: They are part of an ancient streambed.
The rocks are the first ever found on Mars that contain streambed gravels. The sizes and shapes of the gravels embedded in these conglomerate rocks — from the size of sand particles to the size of golf balls — enabled researchers to calculate the depth and speed of the water that once flowed at this location.
“We completed more rigorous quantification of the outcrops to characterize the size distribution and roundness of the pebbles and sand that make up these conglomerates,” said Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Ariz., lead author of a report about them in the journal Science this week. “We ended up with a calculation in the same range as our initial estimate last fall. At a minimum, the stream was flowing at a speed equivalent to a walking pace — a meter, or three feet, per second — and it was ankle-deep to hip-deep.”
Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130530150547.htm
Mars Orbiter Reveals Evidence Of Underground Lakes – And Possibly Life
The find has raised hopes that life may have once existed on the planet – and might even still be there.
Nasa said that the image “adds to an increasingly complex picture” of our nearest neighbouring planet.
Researchers analysed data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft as it looked down on the floor of the McLaughlin Crater, which is 57 miles in diameter and over 1.4 miles deep.
The picture showed that the crater was once deep enough to let underground water flow into its interior.
Antarctic Lake Vida Provides Clue To Alien Life
By Sara C Nelson Posted: 27/11/2012
The discovery of bacteria which thrives in a salty, ice-sealed Antarctic lake has strengthened the possibility of alien life on planets such as Mars.
Lake Vida, which is located in the region’s McMurdo Dry Valleys, contains no oxygen, is mostly frozen and possesses the highest nitrous oxide levels of any natural water body on Earth.
A briny liquid that is approximately six times saltier than seawater percolates throughout the icy environment that has an average temperature of minus 13.5 degrees centigrade (8 degrees Fahrenheit).
The discovery of bacteria in an Antarctic lake strengthens the possibility of alien life on other planets (file picture)
Dr Peter Doran, of the University of Illinois in Chicago, told New Scientist: “Lake Vida is a model of what happens when you try to freeze a lake solid, and this is the same fate that any lakes on Mars would have gone through as the planet turned colder from a watery past.
“Any Martian water bodies that did form would have gone through this Vida stage before freezing solid, entombing the evidence of the past ecosystem.”
The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal (PNAS), and were co-authored by Dr Alison Murray and Dr Christian Fritsen, of Nevada’s Desert Research Institute (DRI).
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/11/27/antarctic-lake-vida-alien-_n_2198485.html?utm_hp_ref=uk
Curiosity Rover’s Secret Historic Breakthrough? Speculation Centers on Organic Molecules
- By Adam Mann
- November 20, 2012 |
Much of the internet is buzzing over upcoming “big news” from NASA’s Curiosity rover, but the space agency’s scientists are keeping quiet about the details.
The report comes by way of the rover’s principal investigator, geologist John Grotzinger of Caltech, who said that Curiosity has uncovered exciting new results from a sample of Martian soil recently scooped up and placed in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument.
“This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good,” Grotzinger told NPR in an segment published Nov. 20. Curiosity’s SAM instrument contains a vast array of tools that can vaporize soil and rocks to analyze them and measure the abundances of certain light elements such as carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen – chemicals typically associated with life.
The mystery will be revealed shortly, though. Grotzinger told Wired through e-mail that NASA would hold a press conference about the results during the 2012 American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco from Dec. 3 to 7. Because it’s so potentially earth-shaking, Grotzinger said the team remains cautious and is checking and double-checking their results. But while NASA is refusing to discuss the findings with anyone outside the team, especially reporters, other scientists are free to speculate.
Read more:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/curiosity-historic-news-organics/
Mars Rock Touched by NASA Curiosity Has Surprises
ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2012) — The first Martian rock NASA’s Curiosity rover has reached out to touch presents a more varied composition than expected from previous missions. The rock also resembles some unusual rocks from Earth’s interior.
The rover team used two instruments on Curiosity to study the chemical makeup of the football-size rock called “Jake Matijevic” (matt-EE-oh-vick). The results support some surprising recent measurements and provide an example of why identifying rocks’ composition is such a major emphasis of the mission. Rock compositions tell stories about unseen environments and planetary processes.
“This rock is a close match in chemical composition to an unusual but well-known type of igneous rock found in many volcanic provinces on Earth,” said Edward Stolper of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who is a Curiosity co-investigator. “With only one Martian rock of this type, it is difficult to know whether the same processes were involved, but it is a reasonable place to start thinking about its origin.”
Mars rover Curiosity scoops, detects bright object
Mars rover Curiosity finds evidence of ancient fast-moving streams on surface of red planet
The Nasa rover Curiosity has beamed pictures back from the red planet that appear to show the remnants of an ancient stream which once ‘ran vigorously’ on the surface of Mars.
The discovery of bedrock and pebbles, which appear to indicate there was once fast moving water on the planet, was described by the mission’s chief scientist as ‘exciting’.
Pebbles, that appear to have been rounded off by water, have offered the most convincing evidence yet that there was water on the surface of Mars.
The real Mars
July 6, 2012
Written by : Joseph P. Skipper
http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com
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Verify M0902042 at MSSS and USGS.
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Verify E0801033 at MSSS and USGS
(22 more images at http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/evidence-reports/2012/221/real-mars.htm)
The visual evidence is presented here in two sampling blocks representing the better of the discoveries. In the first block you’ll see quite a few different bodies of water in a liquid state with some of these surrounded by the bonus of very conventional looking forests. The second block is all about samples of large form forest life Mars style none of which are by official consensus suppose to exist at all on this world.
Remember that the Mars surface is officially suppose to be completely dry and devoid of life. Further, the atmosphere is suppose to be 95.35% carbon dioxide (CO2) with only a very tiny .03% of water vapor and super hard frozen to the tune of as much as –220º Fahrenheit or –140º Celsius. In other words it would be a race as to whether an unprotected Earth human out in the open there would be speedily killed by too much poisonous CO2 gas by many times over or quickly frozen to death.
Note that, even though all of the following evidence is in the official science data and available there for verification, you have never heard a peep out of NASA or JPL as to its existence. So this amounts to the hidden Mars that it appears someone in control does not wish you and I to know about or at least also ignore. Also note that I have added a slight bit of false color to these online images to increase clarity and the viewing comfort level. In any case, the high drama visual evidence is as follows.
Read more : http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/evidence-reports/2012/221/real-mars.htm