Posted on 07/03/2021 10:31:27 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Two research teams, using data from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, have recently published results suggesting that what were thought to be subsurface lakes on Mars may not really be lakes at all.
The question of whether the signals are liquid water or not is also being considered by a team of scientists led by ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration postdoctoral scholar Carver Bierson. Their research was also recently published in AGU's Geophysical Research Letters and determined that these bright reflections might be caused by subsurface clays, metal-bearing minerals or saline ice.
As Mars Express orbits Mars, it continues to provide important data on the red planet's subsurface, surface and atmosphere.
Onboard this spacecraft is an instrument called the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding, or MARSIS for short. This instrument uses a radar sounder to assess the composition.
MARSIS has been collecting data around Mars since 2004, including the south pole, allowing scientists to build a three-dimensional view of the south polar region. "We wanted to look beneath the south polar ice and characterize the old terrain lying underneath using MARSIS data," said Khuller.
In other recent studies using MARSIS data, researchers have found areas where the reflections below the surface are brighter than that of the surface, which is not what scientists would expect.
The radar signals originally interpreted as liquid water were found in a region of Mars known as the South Polar Layered Deposits, named for the alternating layers of water ice, dry ice... and dust that have settled there over millions of years. These layers are believed to hold a record of how the tilt in Mars' axis has shifted over time, just as changes in Earth's tilt have created ice ages and warmer periods throughout our planet's history.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Say it isn't so!
I'm tired of hearing scientists speculating. Get back to me when they have proof.
Show me physical dark matter (not fudge equations) or it doesn't exist.
What gets me is if there are indications of water on Mars, why haven’t we sent rovers in to do some drilling under the surface?
So Marvin DOES exist?
So Marvin DOES exist?
Fight Global Tilting
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