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How Mars and Alaska Are Alike
Little did Bucknell University geology professors Craig Kochel and Jeffrey Trop know, as they were working in Alaska, that they would soon predict one of the most important planetary observations ever made.
The pair was in Alaska for an eight-day trip in July 2006, studying geological features and the processes that create them. As they studied photographs taken of the surrounding area, some features caught Kochel's eye. He thought they were strangely familiar, and then realized they reminded him of images he'd seen when working on the Viking missions to Mars in the 1970s.
Kochel and Trop trekked to where the shots were taken overlooking a glacier. Spotting triangle-shaped landforms called "fans" sealed the deal: They looked strikingly similar to photographs taken of features on Mars.
Mystery solved
Although geologists can usually tell what shapes the landscape around us, it was a mystery what formed the Mars-like features found in Alaska.
The conditions on Mars are quite different than anything experienced on Earth. For example, Mars is much colder than even the Arctic — the average martian temperature is -81 degrees F (-63 degrees C) — and the planet's atmospheric pressure is lower than Earth's. Still, for the same features to be present on Earth and Mars, the two professors suspected similar processes would have made them.
They had just over a week in Alaska to discover what created the glaciers and fans.
During this time they managed to see an impressive 289 events, including rock falls and floods. The vast majority of these events were snow and ice avalanches. The frequency of these avalanches astounded the scientists, who reasoned that climate change was the most likely culprit. As temperatures rise, the glaciers pull back, creating large areas where ice has been separated. Material can fall down these cracks and lead to avalanches. This was creating the features seen in Alaska, and perhaps the same thing had happened on Mars.
An astounding prediction
Realizing the importance of this discovery, Kochel and Trop presented their findings to a NASA lunar and planetary science meeting. Their comparisons were based on older photographs of Mars, but the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was sending back new pictures which further confirmed the idea of avalanches on Mars.
Kochel and Trop explained that with a bit of luck and good timing, it would be possible to snap photographs of martian avalanches.
Amazingly, soon afterwards the orbiter sent back images of an ice flow avalanche in action on Mars. Pieces of ice, dust and possibly rocks crashed down from high, steep areas, sending clouds of fine material billowing upwards. The cloud itself was about 590 feet (180 meters) across. The exact cause of the avalanche isn't known with certainty, but it could be because the sun warmed layers of ice.
This was the first time an avalanche had been observed on another world, and was the perfect confirmation of Kochel and Trop's ideas.
Valuable research
Studies like this help us understand the changes that take place during periods of climate variation. They also show that although planets like the Earth and Mars are very different places, in many ways they can be astoundingly similar.
The details of this paper will also be of interest to astrobiologists. Searching for water on other worlds is thought to be a key step toward finding life, and understanding how the water cycle takes place on Mars will help scientists make more accurate predictions. Couple water with a dynamic world experiencing changes to its landscape, and Mars looks all the more promising for life.
Kochel and Trop's research paper was published in the July issue of the journal Icarus. Little did Bucknell University geology professors Craig Kochel and Jeffrey Trop know, as they were working in Alaska, that they would ... more -
Striking similarities between Martian and Alaskan Landscapes
From the report: Little did Bucknell University geology professors Craig Kochel and Jeffrey Trop know, as they were working in Alaska, that they would soon predict one of the most important planetary observations ever made.
Although geologists can usually tell what shapes the landscape around us, it was a mystery what formed the Mars-like features found in Alaska.
The conditions on Mars are quite different than anything experienced on Earth. For example, Mars is much colder than even the Arctic — the average martian temperature is -81 degrees F (-63 degrees C) — and the planet's atmospheric pressure is lower than Earth's. Still, for the same features to be present on Earth and Mars, the two professors suspected similar processes would have made them. From the report: Little did Bucknell University geology professors Craig Kochel and Jeffrey Trop know, as they were working in Alaska,... more -
Water, Water Everywhere on Mars
The red planet was once awash in water, say scientists -- not boiling water, but benign seas that may have been suitable for life.
"There was apparently pervasive water present during the first 600 to 700 million years," said Brown University geologist John Mustard, co-author of a paper scheduled to be published today in Nature.
Mustard's team studied data returned by the Compact Reconnaisance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, an instrument designed to find traces of minerals that interact with water.
Earlier studies have found evidence of ancient gushers, and the Mars Phoenix Lander recently found ice. But Mustard's analysis provides the clearest picture yet of planet-wide hydrological impacts -- and, most tantalizingly, CRISM showed widespread deposits of clay-like minerals that form only at relatively low temperatures.
Ancient Martian oceans may have been salty, but at least they weren't boiling. And perhaps, said Mustard, they weren't dead.
"I think the prospects for present life were dim, but for past life, during this habitable era, they were really quite good," he said.
As for whether evidence of life will remain after four billion years, Mustard said that "it's probably better-preserved on Mars than on the Earth, where plate tectonics has recycled the crust."
He continued, "On Mars, many more elements from that early history are still present. And we do think whiffs of life are preserved in the Earth record, so I think Mars stands a good chance of preserving signatures, if they ever existed." The red planet was once awash in water, say scientists -- not boiling water, but benign seas that may have been suitable for life. ... more -
Mars once was wet all over
Minerals in the soil of Mars show it was covered once by lakes, rivers and other bodies of water that could have supported life, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.
Last month the Mars Phoenix Lander found ice on the surface of the planet, but it is frozen hard and covered by red dust. Writing in the journal Nature, a team of scientists shows that the ice is left over from warmer, wetter times.
The clay-like minerals, called phyllosilicates, suggest water interacted with rocks dating back to what is called the Noachian period on Mars, about 4.6 billion to 3.8 billion years ago.
The findings fit with the analysis from the Phoenix Mars Lander mission, which, besides ice, found alkaline soil that could have supported life.
Minerals in the soil of Mars show it was covered once by lakes, rivers and other bodies of water that could have supported life, U.S. ... more -
Mars once had oceans, and was "a great place to live"
The image of barren, rocky, frozen plains we have come to associate with the 'Red planet' does not so much as hint that it could ever have supported life.
However the giant cayons which cut through the planet's surface have long been interpreted by scientists as evidence that water once flowed, as they bear many classic features of fluvial erosion on Earth. But it's extremely hard to determine when, if at all, it was present, for how long, and what caused it to disappear.
Now though, a professor at Brown University, after examining the very latest data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, has deduced that Mars was once "a benign, water-rich environment", and importantly it was so "for a long time". This supports the theory that at one point (from 4.6-3.8 billion year ago) Mars could have supported microbial life, in a similar way as did our young planet.
Some of the most exciting evidence was the observation of hydrated clay-like minerals, which were "clearly lain by water." These minerals were deposited in "fans and deltas", which further indicates that flooding once took place.
The next test the team want to carry out is to search for organic chemistry, the fingerprint of life, on Mars, to continue to build evidence that it could have supported life. The image of barren, rocky, frozen plains we have come to associate with the 'Red planet' does not so much as hint that it could ever ... more -
New Mars images released
Photos of the Echus Chasma taken by the ESA probe Mars Express.
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Scientists hope to bring back life from Mars
An international team of scientists has put together detailed plans for a mission to bring back samples of rock, and possibly microscopic life, from the surface of Mars.
To be successful the mission, which is proposed for launch between 2018 and 2023 and could cost up to $8bn, would require expertise and funding from both Nasa and the European Space Agency, as well other national space agencies. "This is going to be extremely expensive and no one space agency can afford it," said Professor Monica Grady, at the Open University, who co-chaired the expert panel that wrote the mission proposal.
Sending people to Mars will probably not be possible before 2050, but if a crewed mission were ever to go ahead scientists and engineers would need to demonstrate that it is possible to land a craft on the surface of Mars and bring it back to Earth safely. There have been seven successful landings on the Red Planet since the US spacecraft Mariner 4 flew past Mars for the first time in 1965, but no lander has ever taken off from the surface again or brought anything back to Earth.
Professor Colin Pillinger, at the Open University, who led Britain's unsuccessful Beagle II mission to Mars in 2003, said returning samples from the Red Planet would allow scientists to carry out much more sophisticated analyses on the rocks and permit a more detailed search for simple Martian life forms. "Everybody knows this is what you have got to do if you want to really get to the bottom of Mars," he said. But he said avoiding contamination would be extremely difficult. "There's a big caveat when you start playing with Mars, and that's planetary protection. You have to be very careful not to bring anything back that might be harmful to Earth," he said. "Your mission has to be guaranteed, and I really mean guaranteed, to get into the Earth's atmosphere without damaging itself."
(Excerpts / James Randerson, The Guardian)
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Are you excited about these plans or do you think we are taking it a step too far and whatever is on Mars should better remain where it is? An international team of scientists has put together detailed plans for a mission to bring back samples of rock, and possibly microsco... more -
Mission to bring back soil samples from Mars gets 2018 launch
Space experts on Wednesday set a date of 2018 for launching the Mars Sample Return mission, billed as the most complex and costliest exploration of the Red Planet ever planned.
The unmanned mission aims to pick up soil and rocks from Mars and bring them back to Earth, where big labs can wring far more data from them than by remote control using small instruments on a scout vehicle.
"2018 will start the era of Mars Sample Return," Doug Mc Cuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Programme, told a press conference.
The preliminary report, issued in Paris by a working group, sketched a mission profile and flight design but also cautioned that many challenges lay ahead.
Its authors said that, regardless of the start date, it would take five years for the precious 500-gramme (1.1-pound) sample to be brought back to Earth and space powers had to pool resources to achieve the extraordinary goal.
Stephane Janichewski, deputy director of France's National Centre for Space Studies (Cnes) said "at least a transatlantic cooperation" was needed between Europe and the United States to fulfil this "very challenging" project.
"It's a sort of (Holy) Grail we are looking for," said Janichewski, referring to the project's scope.
In the most optimistic scenario, a US Atlas A 551 rocket would lift off in 2018 carrying a mobile rover -- or alternatively, a non-mobile lander -- that would be dropped down to Mars to pick up samples selected to give the broadest picture possible of the planet's geological past.
Included in the package would be a small rocket, a Mars Ascent Vehicle, that would later blast off with the sample onboard.
In 2019, a European 5 ECA heavy rocket would take off, sending an orbiter to Mars. The Mars Ascent Vehicle would leave the Red Planet with the sample container and drop it off in Martian orbit, where it would be captured by the orbiter.
The orbiter would then start the long haul back to Earth, eventually dropping off the sample in an "Earth Entry Vehicle" designed to survive the fiery descent through the terrestrial atmosphere. It would then be retrieved and analysed. Space experts on Wednesday set a date of 2018 for launching the Mars Sample Return mission, billed as the most complex and costliest e... more -
Epic crash may explain Mars' two faces
Scientists have been hard-pressed to explain why the two halves of Mars look very different--low-lying plains in the north and cratered highlands in the south.
It now turns out a huge asteroid or comet impact long ago can explain the peculiarity, say researchers working with computer simulations. Scientists have been hard-pressed to explain why the two halves of Mars look very different--low-lying plains in the north and cratere... more -
British Mars expedition team faces setback
The UK team working on the European Space Agency's 'ExoMars' rover, due to land on the red planet in 2014, has had its funding cut by 25%.
According to Professor Steve Schwartz, from Imperial College London, "this means for sure that some instruments won't fly", and that "some groups ... won't participate". With this reduction in the number of instruments that will be made by the UK team, it is likely that either "there will be science that ExoMars won't [be able to] do, or the UK will lose to some international competitor."
The latter seems more likely; humanity doesn't send a probe to Mars every day, and the designers understandibly want to learn as much as they can while they are there. It is however dissapointing that the UK will not be making as many, as institutions such as UCL have an excellent reputation in providing top class equipment and research.
Nevertheless, the ESA's ExoMars expedition promises a wealth of means to study the Red Planet, including tiny silicon 'microseismometers' to study 'Marsquakes', and instruments to study the weather.
Watch this space. The UK team working on the European Space Agency's 'ExoMars' rover, due to land on the red planet in 2014, has had its funding cut by ... more -
Mars Soil Tested Positive For Life
The Phoenix lander’s first taste test of soil near Mars’ north pole reveals a briny environment similar to what can be found in backyards on Earth, scientists said Thursday.
The finding raises hope that the Martian arctic plains could have conditions favorable for primitive life. Phoenix landed a month ago to study the habitability of Mars’ northern latitudes.
“There’s nothing about it that would preclude life. In fact, it seems very friendly,” mission scientist Samuel Kounaves of Tufts University said of the soil. “There’s nothing about it that’s toxic.”
Phoenix so far has not detected organic carbon, considered an essential building block of life. Last week, the lander found evidence of ice below the soil. Scientists generally agree that liquid water, a stable energy source and organic, or carbon-containing, compounds are required for a habitable zone. The Phoenix lander’s first taste test of soil near Mars’ north pole reveals a briny environment similar to what can be found in backya... more -
Spaceships of the future to take humans to Mars in 2.5 hours
Humans can build spaceships capable of reaching the Moon within minutes; a flight to Mars will take 2.5 hours, and a flight to Alpha Centauri, which is scores of light years away from Earth, will take a mere 80 days.
Incredible journeys can be a reality, say two German Doctors of Physics who put forth an audacious theory. Walter Dresher from the University of Innsbruck joined forces with Joachim Hoiser, a leading scientist with the German company HPCC-Space Gmbh... Humans can build spaceships capable of reaching the Moon within minutes; a flight to Mars will take 2.5 hours, and a flight to Alpha C... more -
Asparagus Could Grow on Mars
NASA says that Martian soil resembles the dirt in your backyard.
The Mars Phoenix Lander may deserve a Nobel Prize by the time it’s through. Just a week after the robot explorer took the first pictures of water ice on the on Mars, NASA scientists have a new announcement: The Phoenix has analyzed a scoop of soil, and found that the Martian dirt has the necessary ingredients to support plant life. Researchers say the soil they tested is slightly alkaline, not harshly acidic as feared, and that it contains the mineral nutrients potassium, magnesium, and sodium.
“There’s nothing about it that would preclude life. In fact, it seems very friendly,” said mission scientist Samuel P. Kounaves of Tufts University. “We were flabbergasted.” Kounaves said that the soil was similar to what people would find in their back yards on Earth and that if organic material was added, “you could probably grow asparagus, but not strawberries” [The Washington Post].
he Phoenix is not equipped to directly search for microbial life on the planet. Instead it’s trying to determine whether the planet could have ever supported life, either in a more temperate epoch of the planet’s history, or possibly deep underground. This finding implies that life could indeed survive below the surface, where it would be protected from harmful ultraviolet rays and harsh oxidants that might accumulate on the top layer of soil [Scientific American].
While NASA’s scientists are thrilled at the results–one colleague “jumped up and down as if he had the winning lottery ticket” [Reuters]–they hastened to offer the caveats and qualifications of responsible science. More testing is needed to confirm the results, they say, and testing one patch of soil near the Martian north pole doesn’t guarantee that the entire planet is covered with this hospitable soil. Still, the results suggest that if a manned expedition is ever sent to the Martian pole, astronauts could grow veggies in a protected greenhouse.
In a different experiment, a tiny oven heated another sample of the Martian soil to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, which released water vapor. “This soil clearly has interacted with water in the past,” said William V. Boynton of the University of Arizona, the lead scientist in this experiment. Dr. Boynton said he could not say when the liquid water was present or even where it was. The moisture might have come from dust particles that had blown there from other parts of Mars [The New York Times].
Asparagus could grow on Mars, Nasa scientists claim
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1029819/...
NASA says that Martian soil resembles the dirt in your backyard. ... more -
Bush Intent on Bombing Mars
An initial analysis of soil from Mars' north polar region indicates that it contains the nutrients required to support life, scientists behind NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission said Thursday. The analysis also showed that The US military has constructed four advanced bases 20 miles from the north polar region.
Tufts University's Bob Johnson said,“We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life whether past, present or future; and remote-controlled launching pads as well as radar systems similar to ones used in Kuwait during the first Persian Gulf war.”
Johnson said “we were all flabbergasted at the data we got back.”
Johnson's team probed the US Dept. of Defense about the bases and were told, "The bases do not serve military intentions and its staff would not be military personnel."
According to the official, the bases are only precautionary measures in case of a military strike against Mercury, a known hostile planet.
A team consisting of high-profile US marines, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) alongside Pentagon experts oversee the bases.
An initial analysis of soil from Mars' north polar region indicates that it contains the nutrients required to support life, scientist... more -
Mars lander comes closer to life on mars with taste test
LOS ANGELES - The Phoenix lander's first taste test of soil near Mars' north pole reveals a briny environment similar to what can be found in backyards on Earth, scientists said Thursday.
The finding raises hope that the Martian arctic plains could have conditions favorable for primitive life. Phoenix landed a month ago to study the habitability of Mars' northern latitudes.
"There's nothing about it that would preclude life. In fact, it seems very friendly," mission scientist Samuel Kounaves of Tufts University said of the soil. "There's nothing about it that's toxic."
Phoenix so far has not detected organic carbon considered an essential building block of life. Last week, the lander found evidence of ice below the soil. Scientists generally agree that liquid water, a stable energy source and organic, or carbon-containing, compounds are required for a habitable zone.
The latest experiment was designed to test for minerals that do not have carbon in them. Earlier this week, Phoenix's 8-foot-long robotic arm delivered a pinch of dirt dug up from near the surface to its onboard lab.
Like a chemist, the spacecraft mixed the soil with water brought from Earth into a beaker the size of a teacup and stirred it. Sensors inside the beaker detect the soil's pH and probe for traces of the nutrients.
Preliminary results showed the soil had a pH between 8 and 9, researchers said. A pH less than 7 means the solution is acidic, while a pH over 7 means it is alkaline. Phoenix also detected the presence of magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride in the mixture.
"It's very typical of the soil here on Earth minus the organics," Kounaves said during a teleconference from Tucson, Ariz.
On Earth, asparagus, green beans and turnips could be planted in such an environment and chemical-loving bacteria would thrive there, he said.
Planetary scientist David Paige of the University of California, Los Angeles, said it is too early to tell whether the minerals found in the soil could support life. Paige, who had no role in the mission, said the find was not surprising because rocks weather over time and bits of minerals mix with the soil.
"There are a lot of outstanding questions about the composition of the soil," he said.
Mission scientists said another experiment that heated the soil to high temperatures and sniffed the gas found traces of water vapor.
"This soil clearly has interacted with water in the past," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, Tucson.
The heating experiment, which was designed to look for organics, did not yield conclusive evidence of carbon. Scientists planned to study another soil sample taken from further below the surface.
LOS ANGELES - The Phoenix lander's first taste test of soil near Mars' north pole reveals a briny environment similar to what can be f... more -
Farming on Mars?
NASA scientists are saying that Martian soil is good enough to grow asparagus!
"The soil you have there is the type of soil you have in your backyard," said Kounaves. "You may be able to grow asparagus very well." said Samuel Kounaves, the project's lead chemist at the University of Arizona.
"We basically have found what appears to be the requirements of the nutrients to support life, past, present or future," said Kounaves.
Scientists found elements in the soil that included magnesium, potassium and sodium. NASA scientists are saying that Martian soil is good enough to grow asparagus! ... more -
When worlds collide. Why Mars is like it is!!!
It must have been the biggest blast in the history of our solar system - the impact of a planetary bomb as powerful as a billion billion tons of TNT that scarred Mars nearly 4 billion years ago.
And if the theories are right, it blasted out the biggest crater that any planet has ever survived.
And just so you know it isn't a new idea. "When worlds collide" is a great book and the science though unorthodox is really neat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Velikovsky
It must have been the biggest blast in the history of our solar system - the impact of a planetary bomb as powerful as a billion billi... more -
Test shows Mars soil has nutrients for life
An initial analysis of soil from Mars' north polar region indicates that it contains the nutrients required to support life, scientists behind NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission said Thursday.
The analysis, conducted on a sample scooped up by the lander's robotic arm and processed in its onboard lab, has shown the soil to be much more alkaline than expected, said Tufts University's Sam Kounaves, the lead investigator for Phoenix's wet chemistry laboratory.
“We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life whether past, present or future,” he told journalists during a news briefing. “It is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline. You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. ... It is very exciting for us.”
Kounaves said “we were all flabbergasted at the data we got back.”
The scientists would not say that they now believe that life, even mere microbes, definitively existed on Mars. They emphasized that the results were very preliminary, and that more analysis was needed.
“There is nothing about the soil that would preclude life. In fact, it seems very friendly. ... there is nothing about it that is toxic,” Kounaves said
An initial analysis of soil from Mars' north polar region indicates that it contains the nutrients required to support life, scientist... more -
Giant crater explains strange shape of Mars
A giant crater made by an asteroid or comet explains why Mars is so lopsided, with a basin on one hemisphere and high terrain on the other, three separate teams of scientists said on Wednesday.
The impact gouged out a hole 5,200 miles across and 6,500 miles long -- the size of the combined areas of Asia, Europe and Australia, the researchers reported in the journal Nature. It would be the largest impact yet found in the solar system.
The three studies describe the true size of the depression, sometimes called the Borealis Basin. Some of the edges have been erased by volcanic activity, they said.
A giant crater made by an asteroid or comet explains why Mars is so lopsided, with a basin on one hemisphere and high terrain on the o... more
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