Nasa's Curiosity rover finds water below surface of Mars
Source: The Guardian
Mars has liquid water just below its surface, according to new measurements by Nasas Curiosity rover.
Until now, scientists had thought that conditions on the red planet were too cold and arid for liquid water to exist, although there were known to be deposits of ice.
Prof Andrew Coates, head of planetary science at the Mullard Space, said: The evidence so far is that any water would be in the form of permafrost. Its the first time weve had evidence of liquid water there now.
The latest findings suggest that Martian soil is damp with liquid brine, due to the presence of a salt that significantly lowers the freezing point of water. When mixed with calcium perchlorate liquid water can exist down to around -70C, and the salt also soaks up water vapour from the atmosphere.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/apr/13/nasas-curiosity-rover-finds-water-below-surface-of-mars
rainmaker21
(52 posts)We are getting closer and close to discovering life on another planet.
Response to brooklynite (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
riqster
(13,986 posts)OK, maybe it would be landsurfing these days.
TNNurse
(6,929 posts)I know once you thought it you had to share. At least you knew people on here would "appreciate" it.
riqster
(13,986 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)riqster
(13,986 posts)drm604
(16,230 posts)There are organisms on Earth, halophiles, that can survive in salty environments, but if its also very cold and very dry thats a problem said Madsen. The radiation on Mars nails it that environment is very hostile.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)to burn up their own planet.
drm604
(16,230 posts)It's possible that such simple life could over time make their own planet uninhabitable, but "stupid" isn't really a word that applies to such simple life.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)Teapartian?
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)demwing
(16,916 posts)AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Mars appears to lack our magnetosphere, so, little shelter from solar winds. It may have had a liquid iron core once upon a time, but that would have cooled/solidified a couple billion years ago.
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)librechik
(30,677 posts)Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)You seem to be attempting some sort of snark, but I'm not getting your drift.
Please explain why my comment is so deserving of whatever it is you're dishing out.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)LynneSin
(95,337 posts)They can run the planet and abuse it anyway they like.
Leave the rest of us alone.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)And let's send along a cookbook, since they are so fond of eating their own.
valerief
(53,235 posts)they've fucked up this one.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)Mars distinct polar ice caps, but Mars also has belts of glaciers at its central latitudes -- between the blue lines, in both the southern and northern hemispheres. A thick layer of dust covers the glaciers, so they appear as the surface of the ground, but radar measurements show that there are glaciers composed of frozen water underneath the dust
"We have looked at radar measurements spanning ten years back in time to see how thick the ice is and how it behaves. A glacier is after all a big chunk of ice and it flows and gets a form that tells us something about how soft it is. We then compared this with how glaciers on Earth behave and from that we have been able to make models for the ice flow," explains Nanna Bjørnholt Karlsson, a postdoc at the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen.
"We have calculated that the ice in the glaciers is equivalent to over 150 billion cubic meters of ice -- that much ice could cover the entire surface of Mars with 1.1 meters of ice. The ice at the mid-latitudes is therefore an important part of Mars' water reservoir," explains Nanna Bjørnholt Karlss
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150408102701.htm