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Certain planets with an abundance of salt water?
by creshal 10y ago
Certain planets with an abundance of salt water?
- Razengan 10y agoOr flooding them with such, first? Not that I know which currently-known planets we could do that on.
- TheBeardKing 10y agoThermonuclear bomb the Mars ice caps. I think I read that in a scifi book.
- Retric 10y agoMars is really cold. At the equator the thin atmosphere can heat up reasonably at noon, but it still hits minus 100f at night even at the equator.
- thescriptkiddie 10y agoThere are subterranean brine rivers on mars so large that they can be seen from orbit. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-th...
- Retric 10y agoNot quite. Here is a link that's probably easer to understand. https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast29jun_1m https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/a... We are not looking at underground water in those pictures we are looking at evidence of likely very short term water causing a tiny amount of erosion in just the right situation. However, it's long been known there is actually quite a lot of ice on Mars.
- the_rosentotter 10y agoSlam a shitload of comets into it, like in Seveneves.
- ZenoArrow 10y agoIf you include moons, plenty of water on Europa, though don't know if it's salt water. Generally I'm against terraforming though, especially because we've not shown we can be good custodians of our home planet.
- StillBored 10y agoGenerally I'm against terraforming though, especially because we've not shown we can be good custodians of our home planet. Which to me doesn't logically follow. Send a few politicians to some $%^# hole of a terraformed moon and see how long it takes before they decide taking care of the earth is important. Second, we are basically terraforming earth, the problem is that we don't really have a clue what the outcome will be. Its the equivalent of giving a 5YO a soldering iron and a laptop and letting them play.
- ZenoArrow 10y agoJust because we can and do terraform doesn't mean we should. I'm a big believer in appreciating nature for what it is rather than seeking to dominate it. The Sahara Desert is a great example... Imagine we could cheaply and effectively green the Sahara desert, why would we not want to do that? Perhaps because it adds to the diversity and richness of our world. If you only consider this practically then it makes no sense, as very little grows in the desert, so it's less useful than more fertile land, but when viewed as a cultural asset it absolutely makes sense to keep it relatively untouched by human influence. This is a stark example, but it applies across the board. As I hinted at before, dominating something is less interesting than working with it.
- Razengan 10y ago> I'm a big believer in appreciating nature for what it is rather than seeking to dominate it. Is a termite mound any less "nature" than some random patch of earth and rock? What about bird nests, beehives and beaver dams? We are nature. The Universe is one continuous stream of change.