Water on Mars?

Thread Starter

tracecom

Joined Apr 16, 2010
3,944
The scientists at NASA seem pretty sure that there is liquid water on Mars, but they don't seem quite as certain as the scientists that have said since I was a kid that any water that was ever on Mars dried up billions of years ago.

Who to believe?
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
5,234
The scientists at NASA seem pretty sure that there is liquid water on Mars, but they don't seem quite as certain as the scientists that have said since I was a kid that any water that was ever on Mars dried up billions of years ago.

Who to believe?
Supposedly, the water is contaminated with salts to the extent that it stays liquid well below freezing (someone want to research the saturation temperature at 500 Pa?).

Therefore, the EPA obviously had something to do with it.
 

dannyf

Joined Sep 13, 2015
2,197
Who to believe?
I don't suppose that the NASA scientists today are saint enough not to be swayed by their desires for more funding and job security? :)

Seriously, it is exciting to see that water may exist somewhere else, especially on Mars. On the flip side, it seems to be such an inhabitable planet. Europa seems to be more promising for human colonization.
 

boatsman

Joined Jan 17, 2008
187
Seriously, it is exciting to see that water may exist somewhere else, especially on Mars. On the flip side, it seems to be such an inhabitable planet. Europa seems to be more promising for human colonization.[/QUOTE] So many people from the Middle East seem to think so!
 

Kermit2

Joined Feb 5, 2010
4,162
With no magnetic field to stop solar radiation why not just get a few dozen whole body Xrays every year and enjoy the benefits of life on Mars right here on Earth.
Your commute to work would be shorter as well. :)
 

mcgyvr

Joined Oct 15, 2009
5,394
Its like 2008 (Phoenix Mars Lander) and 2003 (Mars Curiosity) all over again..
Old news... yawn...

Dear Space People,
We don't care....
The amount of money you have spent to tell us there is frozen salt water could have feed millions of starving people..
But go ahead.. Spend Billions more to put a few sad soles in glass houses on a planet without any real life forms or Kate Upton :)
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
Water per se isn't so interesting. It's the implication that the odds for finding life go up dramatically with the finding of liquid water. I hear it's full of chlorates and perchlorate. That might be good for rocket fuel but I'm not sure much Earth life as we know it would be expected in such a soup. But then we wouldn't have predicted all those vent organisms on the ocean floor either.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
There are a lot of other environments that support life on Earth that seem unlikely on the face of it. The extra cold waters of the arctic come to mind, where a lot of organisms have evolved their own version of anti-freeze.
 

Glenn Holland

Joined Dec 26, 2014
703
On a related subject, I remember NASA found a rock on the Earth which supposedly came from Mars. Just how it got from Mars to the Earth is somewhat obscure and some theorize an asteroid hit the planet and knocked a huge chunk loose and into free space.

However, my personal theory it that a volcanic explosion could have been another cause. The escape velocity of Mars is less than 1/2 that of Earth and a volcanic blast could have provided the energy to completely expel the rock. in prehistoric times, there have been some very severe volcanic explosions on the Earth and an equivalent explosion on Mars would have easily sent debris into interplanetary space.

Also, the Martian rock found on Earth is "mafic basaltic" (a magnesium-iron composition) which causes the red tint to the surface of Mars.

That's my 2 Cents. :)
 

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
Look at all the water I found,I'm on the N.E. orbit of the cloud.

@ joey,..will mars accept your image,will you have to make adjustments.
 
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