Report: Mars Cold, Bitter Planet for a Long, Long Time

space.com ^ | 07/21/05 | Robert Roy Britt

[KevinDavis]

A new study of gas in meteorites suggests Mars was bitterly cold for pretty much all of the past 4 billion years, putting the freeze on hopes that the red planet had any extended wet periods during which life could have flourished.

Several rocks that were once near the surface of Mars, and have in the past few million years been kicked up by impacts that sent them to Earth, have been freezing cold for most of the past four billion years, the study concludes.

While the findings don't rule out the possibility of life on Mars, they indicate that biology's best shot would have come in the first 500 million years of the red planet's 4.5-billion-year existence.

"Our research doesn't mean that there weren't pockets of isolated water in geothermal springs for long periods of time, but suggests instead that there haven't been large areas of freestanding water for four billion years," said Caltech graduate student David Shuster.

[KevinDavis]

No Duh!!!!!!

[KevinDavis]

[NCjim]

[stboz]

Everybody wants to know where the water went.

For purposes of discussion, I humbly suggest it is in plain sight......right here on Earth.

[petertare]

Mars, or did the author mean Minnesota?

[doug from upland]

Hey, the DEMS have been cold and bitter for a long time.

[wolfpat]

It's Bush's fault.

[NormsRevenge]

The Martian north polar cap. A study of Martian meteorites shows that the surface of the red planet probably hasn't had significant amounts of free-standing liquid water for the last four billion years, according to a study published in the US(AFP/Nasa/File)

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Meteor study pours cold water on warm Mars theory Reuters

[Popman]

That would take a awful big squeegee man

[onyx eyes]

You mean it'd be too harsh for sending our friendly neighborhood terrorists to?

[NormsRevenge]

Blasting off soon..

Technicians work on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (L) as it is displayed to the press at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, July 20, 2005. The spacecraft is scheduled to be launched on August 10 aboard an Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The MRO science instruments and cameras will provide the most detailed study of the Martian surface and the planet's atmosphere ever conducted by an orbiting Mars spacecraft. At right is the protective fairing for the spacecraft. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

[End Times Sentinel]

Report: Mars Cold, Bitter Planet for a Long, Long Time

 

Fine, but it doesn't have to make me feel miserable all the time.

 

Owl_Eagle

(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,

 it was probably sarcasm)

[Conservative Firster]

Mars Cold, Bitter Planet for a Long, Long Time

Hillary "Mars" Clinton

[markman46]

BOTH have a long cold history

[EagleUSA]

Would make a good place to send all the liberals, communists and Muslims on this planet -- life would be good.

[Doctor Stochastic]

C'est la vie (or lack thereof.)

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Note to self: Pack plenty of warm clothes if planning trip to Mars.

[sonofatpatcher2]

Yeah... But I'd love to go there!

[EsmeraldaA]

Deja vu! That is weird. For me!

[SmithL]

I would have been first with that, if it wasn't for you.