Water on Mars - The evidence and proofLets start this off with the latest discovery. Unfortunately it wasn't info from NASA, but the ESA 8)
ESA has previously shown us a crater filled with water ice..
Photo in the News: Ice Lake Found on Mars(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Mars_Lake_ESA.jpg)
Photograph courtesy ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G.Neukum)
QuoteAugust 2, 2005
Life on Mars? Who knows? Ice on Mars? Most definitely—and now we've got more cold, hard evidence.
On Thursday the European Space Agency released a rare photo of a Martian ice lake in the far northern reaches of the planet. Capping a swirl of dunes at the bottom of a 23-mile-wide (35-kilometer-wide) crater, the frozen lake is thought to exist year-round. The modest temperature and pressure changes in this latitude would not be enough to allow the ice to melt or evaporate.
Water, a key ingredient for life, is believed to have once flowed on Mars, etching the gorges that crisscross the red planet. Today water ice is abundant underground, cakes the poles, and may even form frozen, buried seas (see photo). But it is unusual to find lonely patches of ice away from the poles.
The new image, taken by the agency's Mars Express probe, shows largely true colors. But the depth of the crater's ice-fringed, 1.2-mile-deep (2-kilometer-deep) ridges is exaggerated by a factor of three.
—Ted Chamberlain
August 2, 2005—Life on Mars? Who knows? Ice on Mars? Most definitely (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0802_050802_mars_ice.html%3Cbr%20/%3EScientists%20Discover%20Huge%20Martian%20Water%20Depot%E2%80%94Could%20Be%20Used%20By%20Human%20Explorers)Scientists Discover Huge Martian Water Depot—Could Be Used By Human ExplorersQuoteThe European Space Agency' Mars Express spacecraft has discovered "large volumes of water ice" hiding only 65 feet underground the red planet's surface, in the Phlegra Montes mountain range. It could be used by future human explorers.
ESA claims that the images show lobate debris aprons that have been moved down the mountain slopes over time, just like the debris covering glaciers on Earth. According to the ESA, their finding is backed up by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter radar data, which "shows that lobate debris aprons are indeed strongly associated with the presence of water, perhaps only 20 meters underground."
Scientists Discover Huge Martian Water Depot—Could Be Used By Human Explorers (http://gizmodo.com/5864684/huge-water-depot-discovered-in-mars-could-be-used-by-human-explorers)(http://download.esa.int/images/marsexpress/531-20111109-9465-ctxt-PhlegraMontes_H1.jpg)
wider contextual image of the region surrounding Phlegra Montes. The smaller rectangle shows the region covered in this Mars Express HRSC image release. Credits: NASA MGS MOLA Science Team
Mountains and buried ice on Mars
2 December 2011(http://download.esa.int/images/marsexpress/532-20111109-9465-co-PhlegraMontes_H1.jpg)
Phlegra Montes is a range of gently curving mountains and ridges on Mars. They extend from the northeastern portion of the Elysium volcanic province to the northern lowlands. This image is centred at 33°N/162°E. The High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA's Mars Express collected the data for these images on 1 June 2011 during orbit 9465. The images have a ground resolution of about 16 m per pixel. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
Mountains and buried ice on Mars (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMUGI2XFVG_index_1.html#subhead1)
Frozen lakes on Mars
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars3/Lakes01.png)
MOC narrow-angle image R07-01100
We did a little 'color correction' on this one :P
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Lake_03_Colored.jpg)
Here is the original ;
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Lake_03_M0901354.gif)
Image Source: Malin Space Systems M0901354
Glacier at Base of Olympus Mons Volcano on Mars
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/050316_Mars_Glacier_02.jpg)
A glacier at the base of the towering Olympus Mons volcano on Mars (left) compared to an Antarctic glacier. Deposits in the left image are darkened for emphasis. Credit: Nature/ESA/ David Marchant - SOURCE: Space.com (http://goo.gl/AdRnl)
Pack Ice Spotted Near the Mars Equator
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/050316_Mars_Packice_02.jpg)
Plates of apparent fractured pack ice spotted near the Mars equator (left) compared to ice in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Credit: Nature - SOURCE: Space.com (http://goo.gl/zhmy1)
Mars Express Radar Gauges Water Quantity Around Mars South Pole (http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45bluebird_files/04images/Mars_Water/marsexpressr.jpg)
March 15, 2007
ExcerptQuoteHowever, the strength of the echo that the radar receives from the rocky surface underneath the layered deposits suggests the composition of the layered deposits is at least 90 percent frozen water. One area with an especially bright reflection from the base of the deposits puzzles researchers. It resembles what a thin layer of liquid water might look like to the radar instrument...
Polar layered deposits hold most of the known water on modern Mars, though other areas of the planet appear to have been very wet at times in the past. Understanding the history and fate of water on Mars is a key to studying whether Mars has ever supported life, because all known life depends on liquid water...
SOURCE: Physics.org (http://www.physorg.com/news93191310.html)The amount of water trapped in frozen layers over Mars' south polar region is equivalent to a liquid layer about 11 metres deep covering the planet.
Hi Zorgon, I don't know what you think about Jospeh P. Skipper but I have a link to his site and he has some interesting input about water on Mars. Here is the link if you are interested.
http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/evidence-reports/2000/002/first-water.htm
I have looked at various photographs he has from JPL and wonder what Mars is really like.
Skipper is okay :D Have written to him a few times. I just don't agree with all his finds, but some are excellent. I always track then down myself. At least Skipper provides original image source unlike Hoagland ;)