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The Planet Mars: Scientific Findings & Conjectures

I like the sand dunes...and poor old Phobos has taken a bit of a hammering.
 
Vast ocean covered one third of surface of Mars
A vast Earth-like ocean covered a third of the surface of Mars 3.5 billion years ago, new research suggests.
Published: 7:53PM BST 13 Jun 2010

Scientists believe it stretched around the planet's northern hemisphere and held 10 times more water than all the Earth's oceans combined.

It may also have provided a cradle for the emergence of extraterrestrial life.

Scientists have long debated whether oceans, seas lakes or rivers existing on Mars long ago.

Satellite images reveal features on the planet resembling river valleys and flood plains created by flowing water. However, there are alternative explanations for their formation, such as volcanic activity.

The new research, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, provides the best evidence yet that an enormous ocean once existed on Mars.

Scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder, US, based their findings on a study of what appear to be ancient river delta deposits and valley networks.

They identified 52 delta regions fed by numerous river-like systems. All lay at about the same height, suggesting that they marked the shoreline edge of a huge river-fed ocean.

The researchers, led by Dr Gaetano Di Achille and Professor Brian Hynek, believe the ocean covered around 36% of the planet and contained 30 million cubic miles of water.

They wrote: ''We suggest that the level reconstructed from the analysis of the deltaic deposits may represent the contact of a vast ocean covering the northern hemisphere of Mars around 3.5 billion years ago..

''Our findings lend credence to the hypothesis that an ocean formed on early Mars as part of a global and active hydrosphere.''

Another study led by Prof Hynek and reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets identified roughly 40,000 river valleys on Mars.

A key unanswered question is: where did all the water on Mars go?

Some scientists believe much of it may remain in frozen deposits underground.

River delta sediments on Earth rapidly cover up organic carbon and other biomarkers of life. For this reason, Martian delta systems are likely to be key targets for future exploration.

''On Earth, deltas and lakes are excellent collectors and preservers of signs of past life,'' said Dr Di Achille. ''If life ever arose on Mars, deltas may be the key to unlocking Mars' biological past.''

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/spac ... -Mars.html
 
Through the looking glass.

Mysteriously dark Mars regions are made of glass
15 April 2012
Magazine issue 2860.

THEY look dark, but mysterious expanses on Mars are mainly made of glass forged in past volcanoes.

The dark regions make up more than 10 million square kilometres of the Martian northern lowlands, but their composition wasn't clear. Past spectral measurements indicated that they are unlike dark regions found elsewhere on the Red Planet, which consist mainly of basalt.

Briony Horgan and Jim Bell of Arizona State University in Tempe analysed near-infrared spectra of the regions, gathered by the Mars Express orbiter. They found absorption bands characteristic of the iron in volcanic glass, a shiny substance similar to obsidian that forms when magma cools too fast for its minerals to crystallise (Geology, DOI: 10.1130/G32755.1).

The glass likely takes the form of sand-sized grains, as it does in glass-rich fields in Iceland. The spectra suggest the grains are coated with silica-rich "rinds".

On Earth, such rinds coat volcanic glass weathered by water. How the glassy grains formed on Mars is unknown, but Horgan says magma from Martian volcanoes interacting with water ice and snow is a possibility. That would make these regions (pictured right) potential hotspots for alien life because they would have held chemical-rich water - a key ingredient for life.
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http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... glass.html
 
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Anyone reminded of J.G. Ballard's Crystal World?
 
16 February 2015 Last updated at 16:00 GMT
''Mystery Mars haze baffles scientists''
By Rebecca Morelle Science Correspondent, BBC News

_81043906_mars_cloud.jpg

''The plume appeared twice in 2012, and stretched for 1,000km''

Full article here, http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31491805
 
There are an estimated 11 million favela-based residents nationwide, and the dim prospects of future economic mobility represents “an awful waste of human potential,” according to Wladimir Lyra, an assistant professor of astronomy at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Lyra, who grew up in Rio and received much of his scientific training abroad, sees many fundamental flaws in Brazil’s educational system – flaws that put high-paying jobs out of reach for all but the wealthiest families. “We have a system by which virtually the only kids that have a chance of making it to college,” explains Lyra, “are those whose parents could afford private education. How many Newtons or Mozarts were born in the favelas and could never develop their skills?” Given the steeply tilted playing field, Lyra is eager to broaden the educational landscape of children living in the favelas.

One new program is doing just that. Through the “Mars Academy” initiative, a classroom of students from the City of God neighborhood – where poverty, drug trafficking, and violence remain huge challenges – will have the chance to control one of NASA’s Mars missions. After several days of contextual lessons at the Developing Minds Foundation‘s school, the class will submit targets for observation by the HiRISE camera, ultimately bringing new information into the realm of scientific knowledge. It’s the type of empowerment that – hopefully – will propel the students on a continuous pursuit of new questions and insightful answers, a spark of inspiration that will fan the flames of a brighter future.

At least, that’s the plan: the team of scientists facilitating the experience (of which, full disclosure, I am a part) has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the program. The associated video is embedded below ...

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/favela-students-control-mars-mission/
 
The high seas of Mars may never have existed. According to a new study that looks at two opposite climate scenarios of early Mars, a cold and icy planet billions of years ago better explains the water drainage and erosion features seen today.

For decades, researchers have debated the climate history of Mars and how its early climate led to the many water-carved channels there now. The idea that 3 to 4 billion years ago Mars was warm, wet and Earth-like, with a northern sea—conditions that could have led to life—is generally more accepted than the concept of a frigid, icy planet where water was locked in ice most of the time and life would be hard put to evolve.

To see which early Mars model better explains the planet's modern features, Robin Wordsworth, assistant professor in environmental science and engineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and his colleagues used a 3-D atmospheric circulation model to compare a water cycle on Mars under different scenarios 3 to 4 billion years ago, during what are called the late Noachian and early Hesperian periods.

One scenario looked at Mars as a warm and wet planet with an average global temperature of 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), and the other as a cold and icy world with an average global temperature of minus 48 degrees Celsius (minus 54 Fahrenheit).

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-red-planet-icy-watery-billions.html
 
Did they take into account volcanic activity?
I bet they didn't.
 
Nasa Mars announcement: Red Planet’s atmosphere was blown away by huge bursts of gas from the Sun, scientists suggest
The slow destruction of the planet’s atmosphere was caused by huge rope-like tendrils of magnetic rotations, scientists say, as they reveal data that showed that Mars has huge aurora akin to the Earth’s northern lights
Mars’s once hospitable atmosphere could have become so dry and cold because [of] bursts from the sun that battered it during its early history, according to new studies released by Nasa.

Measurements from Nasa’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (Maven) mission show that the atmosphere was ripped away by a huge burst of gas and magnetism from the Sun. The results of the mission bring far more detail to scientists’ understanding of how the Martian atmosphere changed during its early life.

When it was younger, Mars was much warmer and wetter — and so potentially far more hospitable to life. But at some point since, it has dried out and become far colder, making it harder to live there and leaving life very rare if it exists at all.

Instruments on board the Maven craft found that ions were escaping from the planet at a much quicker rate during solar bursts, or coronal mass ejections. Watching one such event in March, it saw huge magnetic rotations that were flying out thousands of miles into space — and that ions were spewing out into space along those huge magnetic ropes.
The ions that left the planet earlier in its life likely did so along the same route, getting flung out into the atmosphere and so making the planet the harsh landscape that it is today.

Another study looked at an aurora that could be seen on Mars’s northern hemisphere. It showed that aurora — which is akin to the Earth’s northern lights — dipped low into the Red Planet’s atmosphere.
Mars’s aurora is probably caused by the magnetic field in the crust, rather than the magnetism of the poles as it is in the Earth.

A third paper announced by Nasa supported the idea that magnetic fields related to the sun were changing the atmosphere on Mars. By analysing occasions when Maven dipped into the atmosphere of Mars and studied its makeup, it found that variations suggested magnetic fields were key to its changes — and that much of that magnetic field was being contributed by Mars’s surface.

Scientists said that the second study will allow scientists to explore the way that the solar wind and Mars’s atmosphere interact, and find what is keeping that atmosphere from escaping.

The fourth study released by Nasa explored the dust that was found in the Martian atmosphere. Scientists say that there is no process known that could whip dust up so high, and it is not coming from Mars’ moons — and so the dust is likely coming entirely away from the planet.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...huge-bursts-of-gas-from-the-sun-a6723171.html
 
A volcano on Mars half the size of France spewed so much lava 3.5 billion years ago that the weight displaced the Red Planet's outer layers, according to a study released Wednesday.

Mars' original north and south poles, in other words, are no longer where they once were.

The findings explain the unexpected location of dry river beds and underground reservoirs of water ice, as well as other Martian mysteries that have long perplexed scientists, the lead researcher told AFP.

"If a similar shift happened on Earth, Paris would be in the Polar Circle," said Sylvain Bouley, a geomorphologist at Universite Paris-Sud.

"We'd see Northern Lights in France, and wine grapes would be grown in Sudan."

The volcanic upheaval, which lasted a couple of hundred million years, tilted the surface of Mars 20 to 25 degrees, according to the study.

The lava flow created a plateau called the Tharsis dome more than 5,000 square kilometres (2,000 square miles) wide and 12 km (7.5 mi) thick on a planet half the diameter of Earth.

"The Tharsis dome is enormous, especially in relation to the size of Mars. It's an aberration," Bouley said.

This outcropping—upward of a billion billion tonnes in weight—was so huge it caused Mars' top two layers, the crust and the mantle, to swivel around, like the skin and flesh of a peach shifting in relation to its pit.

Already in 2010, a theoretical study showed that if the Tharsis dome were removed from Mars, the planet would shift on its axis.

http://phys.org/news/2016-03-monster-volcano-gave-mars-extreme.html
 
The weird thing about the Tharsis dome is that it is directly opposite Hellas crater, the largest crater on Mars. It is almost as if the material of the planet has been pushed up from underneath by the impact, like one of those pin sculpture toys or something.
 
eburacum said:
The weird thing about the Tharsis dome is that it is directly opposite Hellas crater, the largest crater on Mars. It is almost as if the material of the planet has been pushed up from underneath by the impact, like one of those pin sculpture toys or something.
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The Bean Bag theory of planetary formation - punch it in here, and it bulges out there! :p
 
NASA student interns have successfully flown a prototype of a tiny, remotely controlled aircraft that could one day glide through Martian skies and send information back down to Earth.

The group of students, who come from community colleges, spent their summer designing the aircraft at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. On Aug. 11, they put their design to the test.

Last summer, a different group of student interns initiated the Martian airplane project, dubbed Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars (Prandtl-M). This year, the second group of students continued on the project by improving on the design, before ultimately testing its flight capabilities.

"The first successful flights felt like a huge relief," John Bodylski, an engineering student at Irvine Valley College in California, said in a statement. "While we still plan to perfect the design, it is a pretty exciting feeling to realize that the aircraft is working." ...

http://www.space.com/33832-mars-air...aign=socialtwitterspc&cmpid=social_spc_514648
 
"Mars' atmosphere is said to be 100 times thinner than that of the Earth."

Compare say the summit of Everest (300 mbar) with the surface of Hellas Planitia on Mars though (12 mbar) and the difference is a mere 25 times.


 
blessmycottonsocks said:
"Mars' atmosphere is said to be 100 times thinner than that of the Earth."

Compare say the summit of Everest (300 mbar) with the surface of Hellas Planitia on Mars though (12 mbar) and the difference is a mere 25 times.
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It's also worth bearing in mind that some forms of life don't need the full 15 psi of pressure that we need. Microscopic life, insects, some plants, etc.
 
NASA scientists are exploring the idea of putting a magnetic shield around Mars, in an attempt to restore the Red Planet's atmosphere and make it habitable.

These days, Mars is arid and cold with a very thin atmosphere, but scientists believe it was once enveloped by a protective "magnetosphere".

This magnetic shield protected the planet against cosmic and solar particle radiation, and created a greenhouse effect that allowed liquid water to exist on the surface.

However, when Mars lost its protective magnetosphere three or more billion years ago, the atmosphere was ravished by solar winds, resulting in most of the water evaporating, and the rest freezing.

It is believed that nearly a seventh of the ancient ocean of Mars is now trapped in the planet's northern polar ice cap.

NASA's Planetary Science Division Director James Green revealed that the space agency is using simulation tools to assess the feasibility of creating an artificial magnetosphere around Mars.

This would allow at least part of the ice cap to melt, and water to pool on the surface once more.

It could even extend the ability for oxygen extraction, and allowing scientists to set up "open air" greenhouses for plant production on the Red Planet.

The shield itself would consist of a large "dipole", which is a close electric circuit powerful enough to generate an artificial magnetic field, according to Popular Mechanics.

This would leave Mars in the relatively protected "magnetotail" of the magnetic field, allowing the planet to slowly rebuild its atmosphere over a number of years.

The proposal was outlined by Green at the Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop at NASA's headquarters in Washington.
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I'll leave it to others more qualified to tell me how feasible or ludicrous this is.
 
hunck said:
NASA scientists are exploring the idea of putting a magnetic shield around Mars, in an attempt to restore the Red Planet's atmosphere and make it habitable.

I'll leave it to others more qualified to tell me how feasible or ludicrous this is.
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I'm not qualified at all, but...
AFAIK, the way to do it would be to restart volcanic processes on Mars. As Mars has been volcanically inactive for a loooong time, it's a good bet that the core is now too cool to be restarted. You'd need to place a large moon in close orbit around Mars to do this.
Easy when you know how!
Their idea of a miniature magnetosphere at a Lagrange point is interesting, but still difficult to do (and I think it would be a sticking plaster solution).
I'd say 'not achievable in anybody's lifetime'. Or not achievable at all.
 
Mythopoeika said:
It's also worth bearing in mind that some forms of life don't need the full 15 psi of pressure that we need. Microscopic life, insects, some plants, etc.
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That's true, but you run into problems with radiation, little fresh water, and very little workable atmosphere.
NASA hasnt given up the ghost yet, though.
 
Impact crater linked to Martian tsunamis
By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website, The Woodlands, Texas

Scientists have located an impact crater linked to powerful tsunamis that swept across part of ancient Mars.
The team believe an asteroid triggered 150m-high waves when it plunged into an ocean thought to have existed on northern Mars three billion years ago.
Lomonosov crater in the planet's northern plains fits the bill as the source of tsunami deposits identified on the surface.
Details were outlined at the 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Although the idea has lost some of its currency in recent years, some scientists think an ocean might once have filled the vast lowland region that occupies the Red Planet's northerly latitudes.
Growing evidence that tsunami waves washed over the boundary between the southern highlands and northern lowlands help strengthen the hypothesis.

François Costard, Steve Clifford and colleagues identified and mapped the distribution of sediment that apparently originated in the northern plains and flowed onto a possible ancient shoreline to the south.
"We found typical tsunami deposits along the dichotomy between the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere of Mars," Dr Costard, from Université Paris-Sud and CNRS, told BBC News.
"It supports that there was, at that time, a northern ocean."

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39394583
 
It now seems that Mars once did have an atmosphere comparable to that of Earth:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39459561

Most of Mars' air was 'lost to space'
It is clear now that a big fraction of the atmosphere of Mars was stripped away to space early in its history.
A new analysis, combining measurements by the Maven satellite in orbit around the Red Planet and the Curiosity rover on its surface, indicate there was probably once a shroud of gases to rival even what we see on Earth today.
The composition would have been very different, however.
The early Martian air, most likely, had a significant volume of carbon dioxide.
That would have been important for the climate, as the greenhouse gas might have been able to warm conditions sufficiently to support nascent lifeforms.
Click to expand...

Rest of article at link.
 
Short NASA composite panorama showing Curiosity's entire 11 mile 5 year journey, taken from it's current resting place on a ridge it reached last October.

Hard to get a grip on the scale, but the hills in the background, actually the crater ridge, are a mile high. There's a dried up river visible at one point.
 
We've gotplenty of Mars threads, so this seemed as good a place as any to place these... motion videos using data from Mars to give the sense of flying over it - not sure if they are using stills or CG...


 
MrRING said:
We've gotplenty of Mars threads, so this seemed as good a place as any to place these... motion videos using data from Mars to give the sense of flying over it - not sure if they are using stills or CG...
Click to expand...
That's definitely 3d CG imagery, since the hills move at slightly different speeds depending on the relief- you couldn't do that with a flat image, even if it were very detailed.
 
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