Mars Rover Blog and Forum

From the HiRISE page for this image,
"This image shows features from Utopia Planitia, part of the broad northern plains of Mars. Much research has focused on possible ice-related geomorphology in this area, which contains many peculiar landforms. "
With Phoenix underway testing ice in a trench, the newer HiRISE image shows features, some common for the icy northern plains, and some unusual. Are all these features the product or process of ice? Do the features indicate a non-surface repository of the ice?
a mound which rises steeply without any apparent crater association. Size is 1 to 1 of the HiRISE original, with faint blue patches around the brilliant peak which appears ice covered. At the peak is a circular 'vent' or crater ring. No bright ices are apparent around the peak.
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Other interesting items all across this HiRISE image.
Image and linked site, Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

The LHC is nearly ready to fire up the first of its particle smashing experiments, can't wait to see what happens.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7512586.stm

I tried to explain this at UMSF. I will try here.

At the Phoenix site we have ice stability a few cm’s below the surface. This is due to solar radiation penetration of the surface material.

If you look at the MRO data we have layers at the Polar cap. The reason we have layers is there is a difference of surface deposition. Dust and CO2 are the likely candidates. If we did not have a difference of layering it would not be visible.

I know that sounds so simple but some people do not get it. This is not a new thing in Mars. I will not pretend to understand geological time. Maybe Ben or Brian could give us a time span on the image below..

If we can cut off ice sublimation a few cm’s below the surface at the Phoenix site then cut off at the poles seems likely. During dry periods dust from global dust storms and CO2 ac accumulation are likely layer divisions. Layers of a few cm’s or greater would be needed to show up in MRO images.

The bottom line is, if we know where water ice equilibrium occurs at the phoenix site, then the poles must be cut off at times. There must be another source of water vapor.

Fred

So far, Phoenix is analyzing very tiny amounts of Mars' surface material. I question that such minue amounts can accurately evaluate the existence of life, prior or present. If one were to take a similarly sized random sample from, say, the sand dunes of the Sahara here on Earth, it is more than possible no evidence of life would be found!

[link]

This seems to confirm that early Mars was warm and wet for almost a billion years. This includes the period when life appeared on early Earth. This changes things. Given the tenacity of life, the extraordinary hypothesis should perhaps now be that there is no life on Mars.

[link]

Begins with a page on all the planets (and Pluto) including a 'color patch' compiled over decades of attention to the topic. there are several pages dedicated to the colors of Mars as seen from the surface. Particular attention was paid to using images of the sundial/color chips balanced to resemble the originals. The strips of Martian surface in the backgrounds of these images were then matched to similarly exposed and color balanced Pancam color mosaics showing the wider scene and sky.

Enjoy!

Don

Do you guys think we do not read. We watched his writings and position. Was he right? Who knows?

He spoke his peace and everybody listened.

Fred

Hey folks!

Maybe I'm wrong, but I can remember that Phoenix lander carries a microphone with it.
Anyone has news about this?

ciao?

I do not know why NASA is not admitting that there is water in Mars...
I have seen a lot of pictures of the red planet and clearly we can see the lakes, the rivers and the reflexion of the sun on the water surface...
If in the space there is a lot of ice, why it would not land on Mars?
Please, I get annoyed when I see a discussion about that, because for me and a lot of people I know there is no doubt...
Please change se subject... Water in Mars is a fact... A let's move on...

The plan is to have sample return mission in ten years.

news.bbc.co.uk

Idea iself is wrong.
Too long research loop, several years only to get samples.

Sending several robots like Asimo with a lab would make for far better science.

They will also do much better than man on Mars and Moon.

And it can be done in couple years.

Water on Mars. Water on Mercury. Water on the Moon! Water on moons of the giant planets. Comets made of ice. Saturn's rings made of ice chunks...

Do you get the impression there's a heck of a lot of water in space? Seems like anything that has spent any time floating about in space has accumulated molecules of water (frozen, of course!) which was retained when it accreted to form all the above. "Water, water everywhere, nor any..."

Apparently, the idea that comets brought water to Earth is right, but not the whole story. All the rubble that came together to form the Solar System evidently contained water, too. (I guess as the Sun began to heat up, its water was vaporized and pushed back into space by solar wind, ready to be picked up by the next passing object...maybe even Earth! Among countless others, naturally.)

So, with water everywhere, wherever it is in liquid form it can dissolve stuff, as well as permit reactions energized by radiation to form stuff like amino acids, etc., then it sure looks like life could develop all over the place!

Help me understand. What is it about this apparatus that stops the Pheonix team from using it? Before the landing the team was hyping the AFM. Now it is a forgotten item. I was really curious to see what such an image would look like. Perhaps they never practiced using it before launch? Has anyone heard that it has malfunctioned?

The engineering part of the Phoenix mission was fantastic. Now it would appear the science phase of the mission is turning into a dud. Perhaps they can recover...I hope so. But the mission is half over and they have yet to confirm that the "ice" is water ice. Nothing is happening. I hope the U of A has nothing to do with the Mars Science Laboratory!!! Anyway, Peter Smith seems to have gone underground.

Has there been any measurements of temperatures on Mars which shed some light on whether the Sun generating more heat and contributing to global warming?