NASA NASA schedules briefing to announce MAJOR finding on Mars

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NASA has announced a significant finding regarding water on Mars, stating that liquid water may currently exist on the planet's surface. The briefing highlighted a shift in scientific understanding, moving from the belief that water existed billions of years ago to the possibility of it being present today. This discovery raises implications for potential microbial life and future colonization efforts, as water is essential for sustaining life. However, some researchers express skepticism, suggesting that observed surface changes could be due to geological processes rather than liquid water. The ongoing discussions emphasize the excitement and controversy surrounding the implications of this finding for both science and exploration.
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NASA said in a press statement that it will announce new results from the Mars Global Surveyor, and they are calling it a significant find. And no, I don't think it mentions Cydonia :)

The briefing is today at 1 p.m. EST. I have an idea what it could be, can't wait to see it...

Go to http://www.nasa.gov/ntv" or your NASA channel on cable/satellite for live coverage.

Link to news article: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/dec/HQ_M06186_Mars_Briefing.html.
 
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Physics news on Phys.org
Yep, very impressive stuff indeed...

marlon
 
That was a FAST reply by Marlon! I don't think I was even done loading the page :)
 
SimplePie said:
That was a FAST reply by Marlon! I don't think I was even done loading the page :)

lol...but i have a very fast pc and network connection.

marlon
 
marlon said:
lol...but i have a very fast pc and network connection.

marlon

LOL, being a physics guru has it's financial benefits, eh? :)
 
SimplePie said:
LOL, being a physics guru has it's financial benefits, eh? :)

lol indeed, and having good phd funding as well

greets
marlon
 
water on mars.

apparently there's water on mars, the next step is colonolization.
(-:
 
Got any links? Sounds kind of weird, do you mean they proved there was water on Mars or something?
 
the next step is colonolization
I think there might be a few more steps in between. :biggrin:
 
  • #11
Very interesting and shocking indeed.
 
  • #12
This is BIG news... the news conference is going on right now so I don't have ALL the details, but one of the more interesting quotes from the scientists:

Decades ago, scientists were talking about water on Mars billions of years ago. Five years ago, scientists were talking about water on Mars millions of years ago. Today we are talking about water on the surface of Mars right now!

OK, that quote is comming from my short memory bank but that is the big news out of this. More to come...
 
  • #13
I wonder if they will be able to estimate how much water Mars could have under its crust.
 
  • #14
They are saying the water could be reaching the surface from subsurface aquifers, snowmelt, ground ice.

There is a summary of the main points http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/12/06/mars.water.ap/index.html" . Keep in mind that the briefing is still ongoing.

This is all too exciting. Can anyone say microbes?
 
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  • #15
That was very interesting!
 
  • #16
Anyone up for a little swim? :)
 
  • #17
Why is finding water on Mars a major finding?
 
  • #18
verty said:
Why is finding water on Mars a major finding?

Water is necessary for life [as we know it] and could provide proof to life on other planets [microscopic organisms in said water].

That, and it means a colony on Mars would have a water supply.
 
  • #19
This could be one of the biggest scientific discoveries of our lifetime.
 
  • #20
I don't see the big deal concerning microbes, but certainly if it means that water might be useful to a future colony then I can see then I can see that it is good.
 
  • #21
verty said:
I don't see the big deal concerning microbes, but certainly if it means that water might be useful to a future colony then I can see then I can see that it is good.

*does a double take* Are you kidding me? You think the possible presence of an alien life form is... not as big a deal as a source of water for a dinky Mars mission?

- Warren
 
  • #22
chroot said:
*does a double take* Are you kidding me? You think the possible presence of an alien life form is... not as big a deal as a source of water for a dinky Mars mission?

- Warren

No kidding! I take that as a personal insult. :biggrin:
 
  • #23
SimplePie said:
This is all too exciting. Can anyone say microbes?
Water + Microbes + Sugar = Alcohol.

Martian brewery and distillery. :biggrin:

Well it won't be Saurian Brandy, but hey it's a start! :-p :biggrin:
 
  • #24
from http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/12/06/mars.water.ap/index.html

"This is a squirting gun for water on Mars," said Kenneth Edgett...

(groan... )
 
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  • #25
jtbell said:
from http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/12/06/mars.water.ap/index.html

"This is a squirting gun for water on Mars," said Kenneth Edgett...

(groan... )

I almost posted that quote earlier, but I chose to take the high road.

:biggrin:

[edit: I had to laugh when I read it]
 
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  • #26
Alien life, wow. I would think life would be common in the universe.
 
  • #27
Yea I think that if we find microbial life on Mars it would suggest that more intelligent life (perhaps, of course) is probable throughout the billions of galaxies that make up the visible universe. I think that one of the fundamental human questions is "are we alone?" And if we can find bacterial life on mars, the answer could be no we have confirmed that we are here with microbes on Mars :biggrin:.
 
  • #28
verty said:
I don't see the big deal concerning microbes, but certainly if it means that water might be useful to a future colony then I can see then I can see that it is good.

"I don't see the big deal concerning dodos, but if means that bird meat might be useful to a future colony then I can see that it is good."

-Early 16th-century Portuguese explorer
 
  • #29
It's interesting but I don't think finding microbes on Mars, or colonizing Mars should be mankids primary scientific endever. While I think it's cool, I also think it is unlikely to be useful to us until we have a breakthrough in energy production (fathom the implications of efficient fusion energy).
 
  • #30
dontdisturbmycircles said:
Yea I think that if we find microbial life on Mars it would suggest that more intelligent life (perhaps, of course) is probable throughout the billions of galaxies that make up the visible universe.
More intelligent life? We haven't yet found even one!

*crickets chirping...*

(Okay, that was bad! )
 
  • #31
I'm a bit skeptical about the big news. Yeah, it's interesting to notice that crater walls have undergone landslides/sandslides over a period of years, but that should be an expected observation, not a surprise. Mars is not the Moon. It has an atmosphere, and may also exhibit seismic activity, so we should see weathering, erosion, and settling. If nothing on the surface ever changed, that would be the more surprising observation. It seems to me that it is a huge stretch to observe little slides on steep slopes and claim that they are proof that liquid water exists on the Martian surface. Great "gee whiz" factor, but pretty shaky science, IMO.
 
  • #32
dontdisturbmycircles said:
Yea I think that if we find microbial life on Mars it would suggest that more intelligent life (perhaps, of course) is probable throughout the billions of galaxies that make up the visible universe. I think that one of the fundamental human questions is "are we alone?" And if we can find bacterial life on mars, the answer could be no we have confirmed that we are here with microbes on Mars :biggrin:.

OTOH, it also doesn't hurt the cause of a solar-system exogenesis; i.e. abiogenesis only occurred once -- on Mars. After a while, life transferred to Earth by riding on Martian ejecta. In this case, life arose only once and I don't think it would suggest that life is widespread throughout the universe.
 
  • #33
I'm curious to find out how the Mars life is doing, those bacteriums we've been sending over on the probes and rovers.
 
  • #34
Well no, definitely not widespread, when I said that it is probable throughout the galaxies I am talking like 5-10 per galaxy. But I guess that is true that it does not rule out that life originated on earth/mars and was transferred elsewhere. But again, on the other hand, it proves that life can exist on planets such as mars, which increases the chance that life will be found elsewhere. I suppose it will depend on what we find (if anything) in that water (eventually)

And also, as turbo-1 pointed out it may not be water at all. So yea, we'll see.
 
  • #35
Wonder what the water tastes like?
 
  • #36
Cold dirty water most likely. Very acidic perhaps? :-p

Maybe the bottled water companies will start selling Mars water? :smile:
 
  • #37
turbo-1 said:
I'm a bit skeptical about the big news. Yeah, it's interesting to notice that crater walls have undergone landslides/sandslides over a period of years, but that should be an expected observation, not a surprise. Mars is not the Moon. It has an atmosphere, and may also exhibit seismic activity, so we should see weathering, erosion, and settling. If nothing on the surface ever changed, that would be the more surprising observation. It seems to me that it is a huge stretch to observe little slides on steep slopes and claim that they are proof that liquid water exists on the Martian surface. Great "gee whiz" factor, but pretty shaky science, IMO.

I don't think the current evidence supports a geologic explanation as you seem to suggest. For example, the deposits at the botom of the erosion channel in the pictures have "finger-like branches" and diverted around obstacles. I think if it was due to geologic processes, we would see a more coarse texture.

Now, I'm not sure the liquid water explanation is conclusive yet... the pictures were not high enough resolution to overwhelm the other explanation -- it might be formed by CO2, as a lot of the computer models in the past have shown.
 
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  • #38
SimplePie said:
I don't think the current evidence supports a geologic explanation as you seem to suggest. For example, the deposits at the botom of the erosion channel in the pictures have "finger-like branches" and diverted around obstacles. I think if it was due to geologic processes, we would see a more coarse texture.

Now, I'm not sure the liquid water explanation is conclusive yet... the pictures were not high enough resolution to overwhelm the other explanation -- it might be formed by CO2, as a lot of the computer models in the past have shown.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061207/ap_on_sc/mars_water
Some researchers were skeptical that liquid water was responsible for the surface feature changes seen by the spacecraft . They said other materials such as sand or dust can flow like a liquid and produce similar results.

"Nothing in the images, no matter how cool they are, proves that the flows were wet, or that they were anything more exciting than avalanches of sand and dust," Allan Treiman, a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston said in an e-mail.
NASA gets funding when people are excited about their projects. Claiming to have evidence for liquid water on the surface of Mars based on these images is great public-relations and poor science. The public hears "water on Mars" and assumes that the those smart guys at NASA have incontrovertible proof backing up the assertion. There is no such proof.

Those of us who are interested in planetary/space exploration and keep current on NASA projects know what great work these people are doing, and the faux-science dog-and-pony shows like yesterday's press conference do little credit to their work. I am an amateur astronomer with a pretty decent-sized 'scope, and I can tell you that there are times when the surface details of Mars are substantially obscured by dust storms. Between these storms and the constant heating/cooling cycles the planet undergoes, we should expect to see erosion and changes in Mars' surface, including collapses/slides on steep slopes. To see such changes and holler "water!" is unsubstantiated. Nobody who is familiar with the climatology of Mars would expect that the surface of Mars would remain unchanged for years, nor would they need to invoke liquid water to explain the changes. Follow the funding.
 
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  • #39
Why is there necessarily water if there is just a few big spots that appeared over a seven year period?
 
  • #40
Mk said:
Why is there necessarily water if there is just a few big spots that appeared over a seven year period?
That's just the point. There are major storms on Mars as well as temperature fluctuations, so you would expect to see slides of dust and sand on steep walls over the years, as well as other signs of natural weathering, such as the formation and erosions of dunes, etc. The claim that these photos are evidence of erosion caused by flowing water is quite far-fetched. Anyone who has seen sand-slides on a dune or footage of an avalanche knows that solids can exhibit collective behavior that is quite similar to that of liquids.
 
  • #41
I'll agree that alternatives are possible. But the main point is not that Martian craters are seeing disturbances, it is that the erosion channels on the craters have a pattern of disturbance that is characteristic of liquid flow. Looking at deposits previously known to have been the result of dry events (avalanches, "dust devils", atc) on Mars, the deposits on these photos look different.
 
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  • #42
Ivan Seeking said:
I think there might be a few more steps in between. :biggrin:
i usually think a few steps forward.
 
  • #43
dimensionless said:
It's interesting but I don't think finding microbes on Mars, or colonizing Mars should be mankids primary scientific endever. While I think it's cool, I also think it is unlikely to be useful to us until we have a breakthrough in energy production (fathom the implications of efficient fusion energy).
We certainly have plenty of issues to address here on earth, but I don't believe that we have to forego space exploration.

As for fusion energy, assuming it is perfected, and ultimately much of our electrical energy is derived from fusion, then one long term issue will be what to do with all the helium that is produced. Releasing it do the atmosphere over thousands of years will definitely change the physical characteristics of the atmosphere and the weather. But that's a long way off.
 
  • #44
Is this proof enough for you skeptics?
WaterOnMars2_gcc.jpg
 
  • #45
Yonoz said:
Is this proof enough for you skeptics?
:smile: I'm convinced now!
 
  • #46
What happened to those candy bars? I haven't seen any in Arizona for a while... :(

I guess I will have to broaden my likes and open up some room for a milky way.
 
  • #47
Yonzo, I already told you to stop drinking Retsina and listening to late night radio... :smile:
 
  • #48
Anttech said:
Yonzo, I already told you to stop drinking Retsina and listening to late night radio... :smile:
I've tried, believe me. It's become a habit.
 

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