Ice or dust?
Could the bright areas in this image be a young and active martian glacier?
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
Posted on 12/23/2007 1:58:27 PM PST by neverdem
Ice or dust?
Could the bright areas in this image be a young and active martian glacier?
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
Even though orbiters have eyed it from space and landers have rumbled across its surface, Mars still has more secrets to reveal. Two findings emerged this week: the possibility of an active glacier far from the planet's poles and evidence that sulfur--not carbon--was the element driving the planet's warmer climate long ago. Both discoveries could force some rethinking about martian evolution and dynamics--and maybe even provide insights about Earth's past.
The glacier discovery was announced Wednesday by the European Space Agency (ESA). A high-resolution stereo camera aboard ESA's Mars Express spacecraft spotted the feature in a region called Deuteronilus Mensae, located in the mid-north latitudes of the planet. The Mars Express science team drew the preliminary conclusion that the material in the feature is water ice and that it accumulated as recently as 10,000 years ago, probably from an underground source. Other deposits of water ice have been mapped at the martian poles, but they're much bigger and are millions of years old. The find is a surprise because the prevailing view is that any water reaching the martian surface from underground quickly evaporates and eventually drifts into space. Yet all of the physical characteristics of the feature are "consistent with that of a glacier," says geologist and team member Ronald Greeley of Arizona State University in Tempe.
Meanwhile, in the 21 December issue of Science, a team from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers a possible solution for the curious absence of carbon-based minerals on Mars. A buildup of carbon dioxide in the ancient martian atmosphere supposedly produced enough of a greenhouse effect to allow liquid water to flow for a time on the surface. The problem is that such a process should have deposited ample carbon-containing minerals on the planet's surface--something that hasn't been found. So the researchers have come up with a new explanation: Large amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere, the result of early volcanic activity, captured enough heat to allow water to flow. This would explain the plentiful distribution of sulfates among martian minerals, as sulfur dioxide fell out of the atmosphere and mixed with the wet surface.
The research suggests that "it is possible to build up enough atmospheric SO2 to help warm early Mars," says planetary geochemist and lead author Itay Halevy of Harvard. This revelation, he notes, also "might imply that SO2 played a more important role in Earth's history than previously thought."
Planetary geologist Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona in Tucson, who is principal investigator for the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, says the potential glacier is intriguing enough that MRO should also image Deuteronilus Mensae and train the spacecraft's spectrometer on the site to scan for water ice. He cautions, however, that other, similar martian features have turned out to be made of indurated dust, which resembles ice in orbital images.
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ping
There’s another thread on this same feature.
They tell us that the martian atmosphere is all CO2 but now they say they can't find carbon on the surface? Where does the CO2 come from and where does it go? If martian volcanoes are belching CO2, why aren't they spewing carbon-containing minerals?
Now they have a theory that SO2 is responsible for past global warming on Mars. NASA's settled science has assured us that SO2 is a cooling forcer. I guess we'll have to give the kooks a few billion dollars to redo their science.
Mars lost most of its atmosphere. It could easily hold a much denser atmosphere than it has. Was it all CO2? Not likely.
I think we should consider Mars an enemy planet.
That's a red planet herring. If that denser atmosphere was due to SO2, Mars should have been colder.
Since it’s gone we can only speculate. We can’t even speculate, since you need some evidence before speculation.
“That’s a red planet herring. If that denser atmosphere was due to SO2, Mars should have been colder.”
Maybe Mars came out of a LITTLE ICE AGE of it’s own, for the same reason the Earth, and Venus, and some other planets have.
I notice you could have a prime view of the Full Moon occultation today:
http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/planets/1224mars.htm
I don't know if you read the article or not but some Harvard scientist is suggesting that SO2 may have warmed early Mars. That would go against the settled science which says SO2 is a cooling forcer. It's as problematic as a contention stating "CO2 may have cooled Mars".
Google search: SO2 global cooling, and you can learn about the scientific consensus that SO2 is the cause of global cooling on Earth.
LOL
They tell me the women on Barsoom will cause a man to thank the Lord for the night time.
What a stupid statement. A couple of orbiters and some very limited rovers are sure gonna reveal all of the secrets of Mars. For crying out loud, humans have been on Earth for millions of years and have barely scratched the surface.
The moon is up 24 hours today. But cloud cover blocks the most interesting events, such as this one.
:’)
‘Active glacier found’ on Mars
BBC | Wednesday, 19 December 2007, 15:29 GMT | Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News
Posted on 12/19/2007 12:28:58 PM EST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1941793/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1941793/posts?page=16#16
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