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Breaking News => Space News and Current Space Weather Conditions => Topic started by: zorgon on March 06, 2015, 08:43:55 AM

Title: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: zorgon on March 06, 2015, 08:43:55 AM
Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!

For years we have been saying there was water on the moon and Mars. NASA has slowly started to leak :P the truth but today...  the leak is Niagara Falls :P And it's all over main stream news :P

Wet Planet: NASA Says Mars Once Held More Water Than Arctic Ocean

(http://i.cbc.ca/1.2983481.1425589987!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/mars-theoretical-ocean.jpg)

New maps of water in the atmosphere of Mars reveal that the Red Planet might once have had enough to cover up to a fifth of the planet, researchers say.

Further research to refine these maps could help guide the quest to identify underground reservoirs on Mars, the scientists added. A new NASA video describes the ancient ocean on Mars.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/wet-planet-nasa-says-mars-once-held-more-water-arctic-n318246


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH8kHncLZwM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH8kHncLZwM
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: zorgon on March 06, 2015, 08:50:10 AM
Ancient Mars

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Ancient_Mars3_02.jpg)


Found this lake om Mars - Image Source: Malin Space Systems M0901354

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Lake_03_M0901354.gif)

Added a little color correction :P

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Lake_03_Colored.jpg)
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: zorgon on March 06, 2015, 08:52:30 AM
Ancient Mars

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Ancient_Mars1_02.jpg)

Below is a crater with a frozen lake of Water Ice... taken by an ESA Satellite NOT NASA Oh yes they do have one up there right now so expect a lot more photos soon...

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Mars_Lake_ESA.jpg)

taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft,
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: zorgon on March 06, 2015, 09:08:01 AM
Ancient Mars

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Ancient_Mars13_02.jpg)


Fram crater - this can be 'fine dust' - but it looks like water was there a moment ago!

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/mero088_framh_700.jpg)

Full size

http://mars-news.de/news/mero088_framh.jpg

Now can someone PLEASE tell me what THIS is?

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Mero088_detail01.png)
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: zorgon on March 06, 2015, 09:16:14 AM
Ancient Mars

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Ancient_Mars2_02.jpg)

NASA  such comedians  They posted this on APOD (Astronomy picture of the day)

(http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0504/WaterOnMars2_gcc.jpg)

Water On Mars
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050401.html


Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: zorgon on March 06, 2015, 09:39:07 AM
HUBBLE MARS 1997

(http://www.enterprisemission.com/_articles/04-13-2004_Methane_on_Mars/Hubble%20Mars-1997.jpg)

(http://www.astro-tom.com/images/mars6.gif)
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: micjer on March 06, 2015, 12:42:50 PM
Quote from: zorgon on March 06, 2015, 09:16:14 AM



NASA  such comedians  They posted this on APOD (Astronomy picture of the day)

(http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0504/WaterOnMars2_gcc.jpg)

Water On Mars
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050401.html

They posted that on April 1 2005   april fools!    Who is the fool?
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: adomaniac on March 06, 2015, 02:37:10 PM
I think it's pretty likely that there was once a completely habitable climate (for terrestrial life) on Mars. It's even possible that life started on Mars and an asteroid impact seeded the Earth with the first complex microbes. At some point, something obviously happened on Mars which caused it to dry up and cool down drastically, but that doesn't mean it was always a dry winter wasteland.
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: ArMaP on March 06, 2015, 05:22:15 PM
Quote from: zorgon on March 06, 2015, 08:50:10 AM
Found this lake om Mars - Image Source: Malin Space Systems M0901354

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Mars4/Water/Lake_03_M0901354.gif)
That's not a lake, lakes are dug in the ground, not above ground, as you can see from where the light is coming.
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/M0901354_1~0.jpg)
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: Pimander on March 06, 2015, 07:16:01 PM
You need to explain that better, ArMaP.

How can we tell, from an image, whether the light is from one side with a raised part OR li8ght is from the opposite direction and the part is "dug down" as you put it?  ???
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: ArMaP on March 06, 2015, 08:42:59 PM
Quote from: zorgon on March 06, 2015, 08:52:30 AM
Below is a crater with a frozen lake of Water Ice... taken by an ESA Satellite NOT NASA Oh yes they do have one up there right now so expect a lot more photos soon...
Mars Express has been there for 11 years, and has found some interesting things:

March 17 2004 - Orbiter detects polar ice caps that contain 85% carbon dioxide (CO2) ice and 15% water ice.
March 30 2004 - A press release announces that the orbiter has detected methane in the Martian atmosphere.
July 15 2004 - Scientists working with the PFS instrument announced that they tentatively discovered the spectral features of the compound ammonia in the Martian atmosphere.
2005 - ESA scientists reported that the OMEGA (Visible and Infrared Mineralogical Mapping Spectrometer)(Observatoire pour la Minéralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité) instrument data indicates the presence of hydrated sulphates, silicates and various rock-forming minerals.
March 5 2010 - Flyby of Phobos to measure Phobos' gravity.
2013 - Mars Express produces a near-complete topographical map of Mars' surface.
December 29 2013 - Mars Express performs the closest flyby to date of Phobos
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: ArMaP on March 06, 2015, 09:02:03 PM
Quote from: Pimander on March 06, 2015, 07:16:01 PM
You need to explain that better, ArMaP.

How can we tell, from an image, whether the light is from one side with a raised part OR li8ght is from the opposite direction and the part is "dug down" as you put it?  ???
It depends on what the image shows, as something obvious would help, but almost all NASA1 images have what they call a "label", a text file that includes the technical data that helps getting an idea of all the conditions in which the photo was taken, both related to the camera (sensor temperature, for example), to the craft (coordinates in relation to the astral body used as base reference) and the photo itself (light direction, exposure, etc.).

In this case, the IMG file had this data inside it2:

PDS_VERSION_ID = PDS3<CR><LF>
FILE_NAME = "/tmp/M0901354.img"<CR><LF>
RECORD_TYPE = FIXED_LENGTH<CR><LF>
RECORD_BYTES = 512<CR><LF>
FILE_RECORDS = 2436<CR><LF>
LABEL_RECORDS = 4<CR><LF>
^IMAGE = 5<CR><LF>
SPACECRAFT_NAME = MARS_GLOBAL_SURVEYOR<CR><LF>
MISSION_PHASE_NAME = "MAPPING"<CR><LF>
TARGET_NAME = MARS<CR><LF>
INSTRUMENT_ID = "MOC-NA"<CR><LF>
PRODUCER_ID = MGS_MOC_TEAM<CR><LF>
DATA_SET_ID = "MGS-M-MOC-NA/WA-2-SDP-L0-V1.0"<CR><LF>
PRODUCT_CREATION_TIME = 2000-09-20T21:29:46<CR><LF>
SOFTWARE_NAME = "makepds 1.7"<CR><LF>
UPLOAD_ID = "UNK"<CR><LF>
PRODUCT_ID = "M09/01354"<CR><LF>
START_TIME = 1999-11-05T19:10:54.68<CR><LF>
IMAGE_TIME = 1999-11-05T19:10:54.68<CR><LF>
STOP_TIME = 1999-11-05T19:10:57.02<CR><LF>
SPACECRAFT_CLOCK_START_COUNT = "626296279:230"<CR><LF>
SPACECRAFT_CLOCK_STOP_COUNT = "N/A"<CR><LF>
FOCAL_PLANE_TEMPERATURE = 270.5 <K><CR><LF>
GAIN_MODE_ID = "4A"<CR><LF>
OFFSET_MODE_ID = "30"<CR><LF>
LINE_EXPOSURE_DURATION = 0.482100 <MILLISECONDS><CR><LF>
DOWNTRACK_SUMMING = 2<CR><LF>
CROSSTRACK_SUMMING = 2<CR><LF>
EDIT_MODE_ID = "1024"<CR><LF>
RATIONALE_DESC = "sample"<CR><LF>
DATA_QUALITY_DESC = "ERRORS"<CR><LF>
ORBIT_NUMBER = 2959<CR><LF>
OBJECT = IMAGE<CR><LF>
LINES = 2432<CR><LF>
LINE_SAMPLES = 512<CR><LF>
LINE_PREFIX_BYTES = 0<CR><LF>
LINE_SUFFIX_BYTES = 0<CR><LF>
SAMPLE_TYPE = UNSIGNED_INTEGER<CR><LF>
SAMPLE_BITS = 8<CR><LF>
SAMPLE_BIT_MASK = 2#11111111#<CR><LF>
CHECKSUM = 16#FFED78DD#<CR><LF>
END_OBJECT = IMAGE<CR><LF>
END<CR><LF>


On Malin Space Science System's page for this photo (http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/m07_m12/images/M09/M0901354.html) they also have what they call "derived values", data not directly gathered by the camera but that can be derived from other values, like the position of the craft over the target and the local time. On that list they have something called "Sun azimuth", that they describe as:
QuoteIn a raw or unprocessed MOC image, this is the angle in degrees clockwise from a line drawn from the center to the right edge of the image to the direction of the sun at the time the image was acquired. This number allows the user to determine 'which way is the sun coming from in my image?'
For images that have been map-projected so that north is to the top of the frame, the sun azimuth can be determined relative to north by subtracting the north azimuth from the sun azimuth. The resulting number (positive clockwise) gives the sun azimuth relative to the top of the frame.

In this case, I downloaded the "processed but not map-projected" version and used the "Sun azimuth" to draw that yellow arrow.

Does that help? :)


1 - Almost all (or even all, I haven't checked) space agencies use some kind of format based on the IMG format used by NASA.

2 - I used NASAview (a free download from NASA, but you have to register, or at least it was like that the last time I checked) to read the "label" for that image.
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: ArMaP on March 06, 2015, 09:04:25 PM
Today ESA has some news (http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Have_you_ever_used_a_camera_on_board_an_interplanetary_spacecraft) related to Mars Express:

Quote6 March 2015
In May, the 'webcam' on board Mars Express will be available for public imaging requests. We're inviting schools, science clubs and youth groups to submit proposals for one of eight opportunities to image another planet.

ESA are inviting public proposals for a number of observation slots using the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board Mars Express.
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: Pimander on March 08, 2015, 11:08:55 AM
Quote from: micjer on March 06, 2015, 12:42:50 PM
They posted that on April 1 2005   april fools!    Who is the fool?
If that was a joke based on the delusion that there is no water on Mars then NASA are the fools.  ::)
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: Pimander on March 08, 2015, 11:12:23 AM
Quote from: ArMaP on March 06, 2015, 09:02:03 PM
Does that help? :)
You are saying the light source is in the direction of the arrow?
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: ArMaP on March 08, 2015, 01:29:22 PM
Quote from: Pimander on March 08, 2015, 11:12:23 AM
You are saying the light source is in the direction of the arrow?
The light follows the direction the arrow is pointing to, so it comes approximately from the left bottom corner of the photo.
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: 08rubicon on March 08, 2015, 04:25:05 PM
  Is that shadow on the left side of the 'lake'.? If so, then the lake must be
lower than the land it is dug into.
    rubicon

Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: Pimander on March 08, 2015, 05:41:06 PM
Quote from: 08rubicon on March 08, 2015, 04:25:05 PM
  Is that shadow on the left side of the 'lake'.?
I was wondering the same thing.  There are also some parts on the other side of the "lake" that don't look right based on that being the direction of the light.
Title: Re: Wet Mars - WE TOLD YOU SO!
Post by: Dyna on March 08, 2015, 06:00:22 PM
Quote from: ArMaP on March 06, 2015, 08:42:59 PM
Mars Express has been there for 11 years, and has found some interesting things:

March 17 2004 - Orbiter detects polar ice caps that contain 85% carbon dioxide (CO2) ice and 15% water ice.
March 30 2004 - A press release announces that the orbiter has detected methane in the Martian atmosphere.
July 15 2004 - Scientists working with the PFS instrument announced that they tentatively discovered the spectral features of the compound ammonia in the Martian atmosphere.
2005 - ESA scientists reported that the OMEGA (Visible and Infrared Mineralogical Mapping Spectrometer)(Observatoire pour la Minéralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité) instrument data indicates the presence of hydrated sulphates, silicates and various rock-forming minerals.
March 5 2010 - Flyby of Phobos to measure Phobos' gravity.
2013 - Mars Express produces a near-complete topographical map of Mars' surface.
December 29 2013 - Mars Express performs the closest flyby to date of Phobos

Yes many things, and I like that they are thinking.
July 3, 2014
QuoteThe new study indicates that liquid droplets of water could form on Mars wherever perchlorate comes into contact with water ice, opening up the possibility that environments for life could persist all over the planet.
https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/2014/7/3/liquid-water-from-ice-and-salt-on-mars/

QuoteDirt sample reveals two pints of liquid water per cubic feet
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/26/nasa-curiosity-rover-mars-soil-water