Evidence of Water on Mars! (news)
 

By Lucy Sherriff
Published Friday 8th October 2004 15:59 GMT

NASA has announced further evidence of a watery history on Mars, from both its rovers.

On one side of the planet, a flat rock, dubbed Escher because of its patterned surface, shows signs that the surrounding area has seen water come and go more than once. On the other side, attempts to find a rock unaltered by water have been in vain.

Early on in the mission, the rover Opportunity established that its immediate area had been submerged, long ago, before drying out into a wide plain. The new findings suggest that, after an impact created a stadium sized crater, some rocks got wet for a second time.

The Escher rocks' surfaces are crossed by a cracks that break their faces into a network of polygons which closely resemble dried-out mud-flats on Earth. There are other possible explanations for the shapes on the Escher rock, including a crater impact that caused the rock to fracture.

"When we saw these polygonal crack patterns, right away we thought of a secondary water event significantly later than the episode that created the rocks," said Dr. John Grotzinger, rover-team geologist from MIT.

Half way around the world, Spirit's team is nearly drowning in evidence of water. It first discovered that the bedrock had been significantly changed by water, then went looking for a rock that had not been eroded so they could get an idea of the environmental changes in the region. They couldn't find one.

Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for the science payload on both rovers said: "All the rocks in the hills have been altered significantly by water. We're having a wonderful time trying to work out exactly what happened here." ®

I know what happened.
The magnetic field failed finally, and the solar winds blasted the face of the planet.

Sorry, no pics :(

When are we going? I hope they send a manned mission in the next 10 years!:thumbsup

If they can make an artificial atmosphere Mars could be some prime Real Estate.

I love a wet redhead!

they already made the first step with the space station think about it now they can dock and refuel and then re launch from space its only a matter of time before they setup more space stations as pit points for the ships to stop enroute to mars

i wish theyd start depositing various kinds of algae and lychens to start growing.

the sort of stuff that survives in the artic or in a desert could probably give it a go there.

Interesting news. :thumbsup

Highly doubt they'll send a manned mission to mars in the next 10 years. They would have to come up with a more effective way to travel in space first and they really haven't made that much improvements in the last 30 years...unless they've really been secretly developing shit in Area 51.

or just build a faster fucking spaceship.. why doesnt Bill Gates and Donald Trump invest into R&D of a fucking spaceship that can speed of light or faster..


If I had the finances they did, I sure as hell know I'd be putting as much as possible into that... Mars first, then a new universe after that!

Frickin crazy that we're all stuck on only one planet... time to go fucking own up some more.

lol.. i know we are about to under go a polar shift soon... But it 'shouldnt' be catastrophic because it has been happening every 300,000 years or something.

we want pics