The formation of gullies has been seen for the first time on Mars. According to University of Melbourne geologist Dr Nick Hoffman, gullies near the Red Planet’s south pole form as the seasonal ice cap retreats in the Martian spring. “In itself the observation of active flows is a dramatic discovery since no movement has yet been seen on Mars, except for some dry dust avalanches,” he told BBC News Online.
December 17th, 2002
The Weathermen Of Mars
Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of Arizona Lunar Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, AZ, and Cornell University, Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, Ithaca, NY have discovered further evidence for the possible existence of a changing, and perhaps predictable, Martian climate.
December 11th, 2002
Dark Streaks on Mars Suggest Running Water Still Present
Dark surface streaks along canyon and crater walls on Mars could be signs of running water presently scouring the surface, according to a new study. The streaks occur in areas thought by some scientists to involve long-running thermal activity under the surface. The salty water seeps to the from below, now and then, because of interactions with hidden, hot, molten rock, the thinking goes. The process is thought to operate somewhat like an ephemeral hot spring on Earth.
December 10th, 2002
Streakers on Mars
Is there running water on Mars? Presentations at the American Geophysical Union
December 8th, 2002
NASA: Water everywhere on Mars, but scant evidence it’s done much
New observations by a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars show a planet rich in water, but suggests that for billions of years it has done little other than remain frozen in the soil. The finding challenges theories that Mars was once a warm, wet place hospitable to life. Instead, the current Martian surface
December 6th, 2002
Asteroids prompted Martian flash floods New Scientist
The torrential downpours and flash floods that carved the gigantic river valleys on Mars may have resulted from a ferocious asteroid bombardments billions of years ago. The valleys indicate a wet past, but researchers have struggled to explain how Mars could ever have been warm enough to sustain rainfall that could gouge the Martian valleys. But, according to Teresa Segura, at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and her colleagues, the frequent asteroid impacts that showered Mars 3.5 billion years ago could have warmed the planet for thousands of years at a time and created conditions for heavy rainfall.
December 6th, 2002
New view of Mars — a battered planet SFGate.com
Arid, stony Mars, whose sinuous canyons and broad flood plains have long beckoned Earth-bound explorers, may never have been the warm, wet home of life that scientists have envisioned so hopefully, a new study of the planet’s past maintains. In a scenario that contradicts decades of hints from orbiting spacecraft that rivers and an ocean once covered the Martian surface during a prolonged warm period, scientists at the University of Colorado and NASA’s Ames Research Center are posing a vastly different concept.
December 6th, 2002
New Research Belies Previous Idea That Mars Was Once Warm, Wet Planet ScienceDaily.com
A new study led by University of Colorado at Boulder researchers indicates Mars has been primarily a cold, dry planet following its formation some 4 billion years ago, making the possibility of the evolution of life there challenging at best.
December 5th, 2002
Water Ice Found Near South Pole of Mars
Water ice has been discovered on the surface of Mars near the fringes of the southern polar cap, extending the detection of frozen water to three regions of the Red Planet. Researchers had previously found frozen water beneath Martian soil in the southern hemisphere and at the surface of the northern cap. They had been puzzled over the lack of a similar finding in the icy southern cap. Only frozen carbon dioxide, commonly called dry ice, had been found there. Other researchers have suggested in previous studies that the dry ice makes up but a thin layer that hides a deep water ice cap. The new discovery, made with NASA’s orbiting Odyssey spacecraft and announced today, could support this idea, said study leader Timothy Titus of the U.S. Geological Survey.
December 5th, 2002
Mars May Not Have Been Warm Or Wet
Mars might not have been a warm, wet, and hospitable planet that somehow lost its atmosphere, scientists said yesterday, instead suggesting it was occasionally bombarded by melting meteorites that carved out its distinctive craters and valleys.