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Previous Evidence of Water on Mars Now Identified as Grainflows
- kamac 9y ago> This new research finds that these RSL features are flows of granular material and thus, align with the long-standing hypothesis that the surface of Mars lacks flowing water. Small amounts of water could still be involved in their initiation in some fashion, as hydrated minerals have been detected at some RSL locations. The authors conclude that liquid on present-day Mars may be limited to traces of dissolved moisture from the atmosphere and thin films of water. So, this article says there's no water on the surface of Mars, rather than underneath it. Though it looks like this suggests that water beneath the surface is unlikely to be there as well?
- drxzcl 9y agoLiquid water anyway. We know there is a lot of water ice locked into glaciers on mountain slopes etc.
- nieve 9y agoIt's interesting that the release doesn't address the seasonality of the effect unless it falls under the possible initiation handwave. Is there some other temperature dependent effect on such flows?
- misja111 9y agoActually the seasonality is addressed: "The preference for warm seasons and the detection of hydrated salts are consistent with some role for water in their initiation. However, liquid water volumes may be small or zero, .."
- baldfat 9y agoIs it like the Sailing Stones we have observed in the desert but with grains of sand? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones
- japhyr 9y agoThose rocks move because they're carried by thin ice sheets every once in a while: > rocks move when large ice sheets a few millimeters thick floating in an ephemeral winter pond start to break up during sunny days. These thin floating ice panels, frozen during cold winter nights, are driven by wind and shove rocks at up to 5 m/min.
- jbreckmckye 9y agoWhat would it mean for us if Mars were without water or life?
- sillysaurus3 9y agoWe'll bring both.
- donatj 9y agoHow do you propose we relocate any significant volume of water?
- NikolaeVarius 9y agoWith copious amounts of thrust
- mabbo 9y agoScience fiction has proposed a number of possible-if-difficult ways. Comets, to start, are mostly water. If you're patient, you can redirect some very sightly while they're in the far end of the system and have them impact Mars. Takes a while though. Also, big boom when they arrive. Really though, there's plenty of carbon <edit>oxygen, in the form of carbon dioxide</edit> on Mars- you just need hydrogen. Jupiter is mostly that. With a very large fleet of ships, you might be able to bring some to Mars. Solar sails might help keep costs low, and ideally they're fully autonomous. Heck, if that works, you'd probably want to start doing the same trick and pouring hydrogen into Venus while taking away CO2. I'm sure there's other ways too. Plus, we know there is some water on Mars already. If we can use it carefully, reuse exhaustively, it could sustain a large population.
- hanoz 9y agoWhat was it that made them think it was water rather than grain flows in the first place, on this dry grainy planet?
- byebyetech 9y agoDid they simply went with the visual look of it? Probably did some simulations on a computer and compared and decided its water. I would be shocked by such low quality of Science behind it if that was the case. Extra ordinary claims require extra ordinary evidence.
- lawlessone 9y agoProblem is if they actually suspect it's water they aren't allowed to bring their rovers or probes anywhere near as they don't want to risk contaminating it with Earth microorganisms.
- zachrose 9y agoAnd yet Elon Musk is going to build a colony?
- lawlessone 9y agoI don't believe he is bound by this, or maybe wouldn't care if he was. https://planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/about https://planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/about https://planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/intpolicy/ https://planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/intpolicy/
- notfromhere 9y agogod bless anyone dumb enough to believe him
- rnprince 9y agoYeah, I've been intrigued by this cognitive dissonance for a while. Are we going to visit, or would contaminating the planet be a disaster for science and our understanding of the nature of life?
- lerie82 9y agoI think it's funny they say it's a new theory that mars didnt have water.