Dr. Jim Garvin, Lead Scientist of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program said today that a major announcement is forthcoming about the presence of water ice just under the surface of Mars. Garvin made his comments at a Mars Exploration Breakfast sponsored on Capitol Hill by Lockheed Martin and Ball Aerospace. According to Garvin the announcement’s timing depends on the process required to get the results reviewed and then published in a scientific journal. Garvin said that this was also being done out of respect for the principal investigator behind the announcement “who has been waiting twenty years” for this data. NASA has scheduled a Space Science update for next Thursday, 30 May at 12:00 noon EDT- which is highly suggestive of the time a press embargo would lift for an article appearing in that week’s issue of Science magazine.
Martian Scientists Hope To Stir Up A Devil Of A Storm
Scientists from several nations begin an unprecedented 3-and-1/2-week pilot field experiment on the Santa Cruz flats near Eloy, Arizona, today, May 20, to discover how dust devils may affect atmospheres on Earth and on Mars. The 2002 MATADOR Field Test, led by Nilton Renno and Peter Smith of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, is being funded by NASA’ Human Exploration and Development of Space program and by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences.
Mars Odyssey’s Picture of the Day: Dust Devil Tracks
This image, centered near 50.0 S and 17.7 W displays dust devil tracks on the surface. Most of the lighter portions of the image likely have a thin veneer of dust settled on the surface. As a dust devil passes over the surface, it acts as a vacuum and picks up the dust, leaving the darker substrate exposed. In this image there is a general trend of many of the tracks running from east to west or west to east, indicating the general wind direction. There is often no general trend present in dust devil tracks seen in other images. The track patterns are quite ephemeral and can completely change or even disappear over the course of a few months. Dust devils are one of the mechanisms that Mars uses to constantly pump dust into the ubiquitously dusty atmosphere. This atmospheric dust is one of the main driving forces of the present Martian climate.
UK Physics Congress Speaker Explains Water On Mars UniSci
When it was announced last month that the Mars Odyssey satellite had found water ice beneath the planet’s frozen carbon dioxide south polar ice cap, at least one scientist was thrilled. “I felt excited!” says Dr. Lidija Siller, a physicist from the University of Newcastle. “I believe that the data I have explains how this water got trapped underneath the surface.” Dr. Siller presented the results of her research — which involves studying photochemical reactions in ice — at the Condensed Matter physics conference on Monday, part of the Institute of Physics Congress in Brighton, England. Photochemical reactions are changes in the chemistry of a substance that occur when light is shined at it. On Mars, both ultraviolet (UV) light from the Sun and low energy electrons can cause photochemical reactions in the carbon dioxide ice caps. The electrons are produced when high energy X-rays from the Sun fall on the ice.
Mars, Like Earth, Sculpted by Super Eruptions and Epic Floods
Explosive volcanic eruptions on Mars, fueled by the same stuff that makes your Pepsi fizz, fueled colossal floods that carved some of the gorges and gouges found on the Red Planet, a new study suggests. The forces at work in this soda pop science were almost beyond imagination. Take the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens or the 1993 Mississippi River flood, then multiply the destructive force hundreds of times over and you’ll get an inkling of the destructive potential of epic, sudden floods of bygone eras on Mars. Our planet, too, may have experienced similar “superfloods”, as they are sometimes called.
The Carbon Versus Water Battle Goes Hemispherical
When astronauts finally land on Mars, a safe bet is that they’ll head for northern climes if they intend to spend much time there. That’s because nearly all the available water is frozen as ice at the north pole. Planetary scientists have been aware of this for some time, but they now have a new clue why it is so. In the March 21 issue of the journal Nature, California Institute of Technology researcher Mark Richardson and his colleague John Wilson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveal that the higher average elevation of the Red Planet’s southern hemisphere ultimately tends to drive water northward.
Two-faced Mars explained
Researchers may have explained why the north and south poles of Mars are so different. It is because the planet’s atmospheric circulation is affected by the higher terrain in the southern hemisphere. The north polar cap is made mainly of water-ice, while the southern cap appears to be mainly frozen carbon dioxide or “dry ice”. Using a sophisticated computer model of the planet’s atmosphere, researchers report that the thin Martian air (which is mostly carbon dioxide) rises and falls more vigorously in the southern than in the northern hemisphere. They say this creates an overall south-to-north flow of water vapour, which could explain the observed difference in the compositions of the poles.
Why it Snows at Mars’ North Pole
Mars provides a dictionary definition for the phrase ‘polar differences’. A vast ice cap of water ice and snow dominates the planet’s north pole. Yet around the south pole, a comparatively tiny cap appears to be composed mostly of frozen carbon dioxide, popularly known as dry ice. A new study may explain why. Fresh clues have been found in a computer model of broad circulation patterns that change with the seasons and appear to control how and where water is transported on the Red Planet and why snowstorms are largely limited to the north. Further, the research suggests that the atmospheric circulation may be controlled to some extent by the fact that Mars’ southern hemisphere is generally higher than the surface elevations in the north hemisphere.
Support For Critical Role Of Carbon Dioxide On Mars Grows
Scientists have provided new evidence that liquid carbon dioxide, not running water, may have been the primary cause of erosional features such as gullies, valley networks, and channels that cover the surface of Mars. Research suggesting that condensed carbon dioxide found in Martian crust carved these features is reported by Kenneth L. Tanaka and colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the University of Melbourne, Australia, will appear this month in Geophysical Research Letters, published by the American Geophysical Union.
Photos Suggest Recent Flooding on Mars, Study Claims
A team of researchers studying photographs of Mars has found teardrop features that they say were sculpted by flowing water as recently as 10 million years ago. Evidence for water-carved channels on the Red Planet dates back to the 1970s Viking missions. More recently, the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) probe has provided pictures that reveal what may be ancient river beds and sedimentary layers associated with lakes or oceans. Controversial evidence has emerged indicating more recent bursts of water flowing down ravines and crater walls. The newest study involves MGS images studied by scientists at NASA and the University of Arizona. The researchers examined a series of fissures that stretch more than a thousand kilometers (600 miles) across the lava-covered Cerberus Plains, just north of the Martian equator. The images show geologic evidence for catastrophic floods, the scientists said in a press statement issued today. Their work is detailed in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.