So cool. https://www.chron.com/news/science/...rtian-landscape-study-13103483.php?ipid=hpctp NEW YORK (AP) — A huge lake of salty water appears to be buried deep in Mars, raising the possibility of finding life on the red planet, scientists reported Wednesday. The discovery, based on observations by a European spacecraft, generated excitement from experts. Water is essential to life as we know it, and scientists have long sought to prove that the liquid is present on Mars. "If these researchers are right, this is the first time we've found evidence of a large water body on Mars," said Cassie Stuurman, a geophysicist at the University of Texas who found signs of an enormous Martian ice deposit in 2016. Scott Hubbard, a professor of astronautics at Stanford University who served as NASA's first Mars program director in 2000, called it "tremendously exciting." "Our mantra back then was 'follow the water.' That was the one phrase that captured everything," Hubbard said. "So this discovery, if it stands, is just thrilling because it's the culmination of that philosophy." The study, published in the journal Science, does not determine how deep the reservoir actually is. This means that scientists can't specify whether it's an underground pool, an aquifer-like body, or just a layer of sludge. To find the water, Italian researchers analyzed radar signals collected over three years by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft. Their results suggest that a 12-mile-wide (20 kilometers) reservoir lies below ice about a mile (1.5 kilometers) thick in an area close to the planet's south pole. They spent at least two years examining the data to make sure they'd detected water, not ice or another substance. "I really have no other explanation," said astrophysicist Roberto Orosei of Italy's National Institute of Astrophysics in Bologna and lead author of the study. Mars is very cold, but the water might have been kept from freezing by dissolved salts. It's the same as when you put salt on a road, said Kirsten Siebach, a planetary geologist at Rice University who wasn't part of the study. "This water would be extremely cold, right at the point where it's about to freeze. And it would be salty. Those are not ideal conditions for life to form," Siebach said. Still, she said, there are microbes on Earth that have been able to adapt to environments like that. Orosei said, "It's tempting to think that this is the first candidate place where life could persist" on Mars. He suspects Mars may contain other hidden bodies of water, waiting to be discovered. Our planetary neighbor has been a popular target for exploration, with rovers on its surface and other probes examining the planet from orbit. In May, NASA launched another spacecraft, the InSight Mars lander, that will dig under the surface after it reaches a flat plain just north of the Martian equator in November.
A huge discovery! Water on Mars means that we can live there. We really can. I think the problems of radiation, thin atmosphere, and temperature can be handled. What we've needed more than anything is water. I agree with one of those interviewed that this is just the first significant body of water to be discovered. I think there will be others. Man, I wish I were 20 again. Those who are will be witness to Man exploring and beginning to settle the planet Mars. In my humble opinion. What a time to be alive.
Maybe, but I can't dream of being a participant. Back in the '60's, I was one of many who expected us by now to have a major space station in geosynchronous orbit, a base(s) on the moon, and at least exploring Mars. 50 years seemed an eternity away. The technology was within our grasp. It only took the will to do it. After we "won" the Space Race with the Soviet Union, "the will to do it" in the general public, and especially in Congress, was reduced dramatically. How could NASA compete with farm subsidies?
Well you might be alive when the Chinese make it to Mars I'm sure Les will put the Rockets championship trophies on that spaceship as well.
Increasingly, it seems that planets and moons without water or ice will be the exceptions. Good stuff! (Water, and the news.)
Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if the Chinese returned to the Moon before us and began building a base. I would rather see us do that first, but it doesn't look good right now.
I imagine billions of years of evolution in a galaxy far, far away, you have life forms thriving without water. We know nothing.
Cats everywhere feel like they just got ****ed in the ass. But they are optimistic about the study to find milk on Neptune.
I guess we rip off their tech for a change? OTOH, maybe not. At least they serve as a good swift kick in the pants.
This is awesome. At the very least we would see bacteria and probably viruses that have evolved millions or billions of years under very different conditions than earth's...I can't imagine the survival mechanisms they've developed...at least on a cellular level, compared to us. I imagine they'd be very similar, but who knows.
The water is like a thick briny slush -- probably teaming with microbes... or the satellite's data may be off.
There's a lot of educated guessing going on right now. This could end up being like Columbus when he first reached land. He thought he had reached Asia and was wildly off, of course. Humanity has discovered a large amount of water in one place, and a mile below the surface. What it's made of, exactly, what's in it (life, maybe?), how large is it really, how hard will it be to get to, and are there other large bodies of water? Just some of the questions waiting to be answered. This Italian experiment, regardless of how it eventually plays out, is a great success and kudos to their scientists and the other Europeans involved. I love the idea of space exploration being an international endeavor. How realistic that idea is in the long term remains to be seen, but there's a large amount of cooperation currently going on, and more countries getting into space than ever before. The Japanese, the Indians, and others are on their way, joining the Europeans (the EU, UK, and others), "Euro-Asian" Russia, and China as interested players.
haven't we learned anything from the movies brehs?? aliens are evil. we need to stay on earth and far far away from space.
