Miraculously waterice seems to appear everywhere on Mars, now. I want to say thank you to all participients who fought the old dogma for so long and I would like to encourage them to fight the dogma we face today with the same courage but with even more energy and speed, to open the mental iron gates and to tear down the selfish and dangerous interests, that try to deny so many important matters.
"That`s a giant leap for the first alien microbe to find acceptance, but there will be only small steps to take for the other alien organisms following, up to intelligent or superintelligent life."
Knobs near Reull Vallis (ESP_017286_1430)Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona "This observation shows a knob and large crater near Reull Vallis, east of the Hellas Basin. The crater's ejecta blanket abuts the base of the knob. The crater floor and ejecta are blanketed with an
ice-rich mantle that is common throughout the Martian mid-latitudes.
The mantle deposits are pitted and grooved perhaps due to the sublimation of ice. This mantle is thought to have been deposited as snow around 10 million years ago during a period of high obliquity, when the planet's axis was more tilted and environmental conditions could have been more conducive to snowfall in these regions.
Several small impact craters are visible on the ejecta blanket that appear to have been filled with mantling deposits that have since been partially removed. These craters give us clues to the erosional history of the deposit. Note the fresh looking impact crater at the top of the knob. This crater does not appear to contain mantling deposits and may be much younger.
This region contains many mesas surrounded by lobate debris aprons that are thought to be ice-rich. These aprons have been interpreted as a variety of possible features including rock glaciers, ice-rich mass movements, or debris-covered glacial flows. Reull Vallis itself is filled with what is referred to as "fretted terrain," which is also thought to be ice-richmaterial.
This is an interesting article from New Scientist - I posted already in the Coffee Shop, but it belongs in this thread as well:
"Martian tubes could be home for 'cavenauts'
OUR ancestors made their first homes in caves. Now it looks like the first humans on Mars will do the same.
An analysis of Martian geography suggests where to look for the right kind of caves. "At least two regions, the Tharsis rise and the Elysium rise, contain volcanic features which may be suitable locations for caves," says lead author Kaj Williams of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.
What's more, the analysis suggests that caves in these regions will contain a ready supply of water, in the form of ice.
Lava tubes are the most likely form of cave that we could occupy on Mars. These tunnel-like caves were created when ancient lava flows solidified at the surface, while lava inside drained away."
Icy Craters on Mars (ESP_016954_2245) Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Newly formed impact craters have been discovered on Mars over the past several years. When craters form over dusty regions the impact blast blows the bright dust off the terrain over a wide area, leaving a dark spot.
These large dark spots are visible to the Context Camera (CTX) and the Context Camera team reports their discovery to the HiRISE team. HiRISE has sufficient resolution to see not only the dark blast zone, but also the much smaller crater that formed it. One of these craters, with its dark blast zone, is visible
This crater is one of a special group that have excavated down to buried ice. This ice gets thrown out of the crater onto the surrounding terrain. Although buried ice is common over about half the Martian surface, we can only easily discover craters in dusty regions. The overlap between areas that both have buried ice and surface dust is unfortunately small. So even though we have discovered over 100 new impact craters we have only discovered 7 new craters that expose buried ice.
When craters excavate this buried ice it tells us something about the extent and depth of buried ice on Mars (controlled by climate); this information is used by planetary scientists to figure out what the recent climate of Mars was like. It has also been a surprise that this ice is so clean. Scientists expected this buried ice to be a mixture of ice and dirt; instead this ice seems to have formed in pure lenses. Yet another surprise that Mars had in store for us!
Report from 2005 online with some graphs http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMA1UULWFE_0.html
Mars Express evidence for large aquifers on early Mars
30 November 2005 Substantial quantities of liquid water must have been stably present in the early history of Mars. The findings of OMEGA, on board ESA's Mars Express, have implications on the climatic history of the planet and the question of its 'habitability' at some point in its history.
These conclusions were drawn thanks to data on Martian surface minerals obtained by OMEGA (Observatoire pour la Mineralogy, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité), the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer on board ESA's Mars Express.
From previous observations, Mars must have undergone water-driven processes, which left their signature in surface structures such as channel systems and signs of extensive aqueous erosion. However, such observations do not necessarily imply the stable presence of liquid water on the surface over extended periods of time during the Martian history.
In Marwth Vallis, OMEGA maps the water - rich minerals.
The data collected by OMEGA unambiguously reveal the presence of specific surface minerals which imply the long-term presence of large amounts of liquid water on the planet.
These 'hydrated' minerals, so called because they contain water in their crystalline structure, provide a clear 'mineralogical' record of water-related processes on Mars.
During 18 months of observations OMEGA has mapped almost the entire surface of the planet, generally at a resolution between one and five kilometres, with some areas at sub-kilometre resolution.
In Marwth Vallis, OMEGA shows no hydration (left); OMEGA detected hydrated clays (right) The instrument detected the presence of two different classes of hydrated minerals, 'phyllosilicates' and 'hydrated sulphates', over isolated but large areas on the surface.
Both minerals are the result of a chemical alteration of rocks. However, their formation processes are very different and point to periods of different environmental conditions in the history of the planet.
Phyllosilicates, so-called because of their characteristic structure in thin layers ('phyllo' = thin layer), are the alteration products of igneous minerals (minerals of magmatic origin) sustaining a long-term contact with water. An example of phyllosilicate is clay.
Phyllosilicates were detected by OMEGA mainly in the Arabia Terra, Terra Meridiani, Syrtis Major, Nili Fossae and Mawrth Vallis regions, in the form of dark deposits or eroded outcrops.
Hydrated sulphates, the second major class of hydrated minerals detected by OMEGA, are also minerals of aqueous origin. Unlike phyllosilicates, which form by an alteration of igneous rocks, hydrated sulphates are formed as deposits from salted water; most sulphates need an acid water environment to form. They were spotted in layered deposits in Valles Marineris, extended exposed deposits in Terra Meridiani, and within dark dunes in the northern polar cap.
When did the chemical alteration of the surface that led to the formation of hydrated minerals occur? At what point of Mars's history was water standing in large quantities on the surface? OMEGA's scientists combined their data with those from other instruments and suggest a likely scenario of what may have happened.
"The clay-rich, phyllosilicate deposits we have detected were formed by alteration of surface materials in the very earliest times of Mars," says Jean-Pierre Bibring, OMEGA Principal Investigator.
"The altered material must have been buried by subsequent lava flows we observe around the spotted areas. Then, the material would have been exposed by erosion in specific locations or excavated from an altered crust by meteoritic impacts," Bibring adds.
Analysis of the surrounding geological context, combined with the existing crater counting techniques to calculate the relative age of surface features on Mars, places the formation of phyllosilicates in the early Noachian era, during the intense cratering period. The Noachian era, lasting from the planet's birth to about 3.8 thousand million years ago, is the first and most ancient of the three geological eras on Mars.
"An early active hydrological system must have been present on Mars to account for the large amount of clays, or phyllosilicates in general, that OMEGA has observed," says Bibring.
The long-term contact with liquid water that led to the phyllosilicate formation could have existed and be stable at the surface of Mars, if the climate was warm enough. Alternatively, the whole formation process could have occurred through the action of water in a warm, thin crust.
OMEGA data also show that the sulphate deposits are distinct from, and have been formed after, the phyllosilicate ones. To form, sulphates do not need a particularly long-term presence of liquid water, but water must be there and it must be acidic.
The detection and mapping of these two different kinds of hydrated minerals point to two major climatic episodes in the history of Mars: an early – Noachian – moist environment in which phyllosilicates formed, followed by a more acid environment in which the sulphates formed. These two episodes were separated by a Mars global climatic change.
"If we look at today's evidence, the era in which Mars could have been habitable and sustained life would be the early Noachian, traced by the phyllosilicates, rather than the sulphates. The clay minerals we have mapped could still retain traces of a possible biochemical development on Mars," Bibring concludes.
Note to editors:
These results appear on line in Nature, on 30 November 2005, in an article called: 'Phyllosilicate on Mars and implications for early Martian climate', by:
F. Poulet, J-P. Bibring, Y. Langevin, B. Gondet and C. Gomez (Institut d'Astrophyisique Spatiale, Univ. of Paris Sud and CNRS, Orsay, France); J.F. Mustard and A. Gendrin (Geological Sciences, Brown Univ., Rhode Island, USA); N. Mangold (Interactions & Dynamique des Environment de Surface, Orsay, France); R.E. Arvidson (Earth & Planetary Sciences, Washington Univ., St. Louis, USA); and the OMEGA team.
Thank You Sharon Wilson and all the others, whoever you are !
Northern Spring.
HiRISE ESP_016641_2500 Acquisitation date 13. February 2010. 36,6 cm / pixel, so objects ca. 95 cm across are resolved.
Polygonal Patterned Ground (ESP_016641_2500) Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
From a distance, the floor of this crater looks like a giant honeycomb or spider web. The intersecting shapes, or polygons, commonly occur in the northern lowlands of Mars.
The polygons in this "patterned ground" are easy to see because their edges are bound by troughs or ridges covered by bright frost relative to their darker, frost-free interiors. Patterned ground on Mars is thought to form as the result of cyclic thermal contraction cracking in the permanently frozen ground.
Scientists study polygonally-patterned ground on Mars because the occurrence and physical characteristics of the polygons helps us understand the recent and past distribution of ice (frozen water) in the shallow subsurface. These features also provide clues about climate conditions. The subimage shows smaller polygons within larger polygons.
Hey you big payed, high educated academics, could it be, you build your theories onto quicksand ? No doubts ? Still waiting for some courageous action.
The closer you come , the more is hidden.
As Mr. Skipper said one day.: "They first detect and eliminate the obvious, which means the geometric patterns, movements and big scale anomalies. "
Maybe their universe has to be grey. Ours is not.
Remember the microphone onboard of PHOENIX: "We cannot risk to turn it on, there are some indications, it would cause a malfunction." Exact, - it would have caused a malfunction in the coordinated misleaded public perceiption.
To hear MARS, to fly above the ridges, to experience a sunrise in sommer, watch the icecaps melting in spring, to follow the moving clouds, to observe new craters builded by outbursts, not by meteorite impacts, - to accompagny the spores carrying gas balloons ( Skipper) , floating with the wind and to walk the paths of one of those old martian towns just before sunset, when the wind is quiet and the shadows are long ( Bradbury )....
Cannot believe these scientists out there, without any ekseption, are highpayed professional failures. Waiting for some clear signal to initiate the break through. Reality is on your side. Loosing some chains, loosing the fear, would be no loss at all.... Maybe starting with the martian moons ?
" The center of Phobos ." or "Discoveries inside of the fear inside."
When I see those so called real color pics (everything is deep, deep red), & can't help but think "are you kidding? is this a joke?". They just look reduculous to me.
in one pic, everything is deep red, & the USA flag is purple-the explanation is that its due to atmospheric dust.Yet the atmosphere would have to be extremely thick- more like Titan- due to the closeness of the flag to the camera. In a thin Martian atmosphere it can probably only mean that they basically just stick a big reddish tint over the whole picture to make it appear dry & very rusty,& very dead, & very red.