BigDaddy_GFS
December 6th, 2006, 02:35 PM
A bit of breaking non-porn-related news I posted on my own site. Thought I'd share it, anyway.
We've found water on Mars, scientists say
Mark Henderson, Science Editor of The Times
The gully that on Mars that scientists say was created by water (NASA/AP)
Liquid water has flowed on the surface of Mars within the past five years, according to new evidence that suggests the Red Planet could currently be capable of harbouring life.
Images taken from an orbiting spacecraft have revealed two fresh features in the Martian landscape that scientists think were been formed by brief torrents of water as recently as 2001.
Timeonline (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2490296,00.html)
PASADENA, California -- Evidence that suggests Mars was once a water-rich world is mounting as scientists scrutinize data from the Mars Exploration rover, Opportunity, busily at work in a small crater at Meridiani Planum. That information may well be leading to a biological bombshell of a finding that the red planet has been, and could well be now, an extraterrestrial home for life.
There is a palpable buzz here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California that something wonderful is about to happen in the exploration of Mars.
There is no doubt that the Opportunity Mars rover is relaying a mother lode of geological data. Using an array of tools carried by the golf cart-sized robot -- from spectrometers, a rock grinder, cameras and powerful microscopic imager -- scientists are carefully piecing together a compelling historical portrait of a wet and wild world.
Where Opportunity now roves, some scientists here suggest, could have been underneath a huge ocean or lake. But what has truly been uncovered by the robot at Meridiani Planum is under judicious and tight-lipped review
Space.com (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/opportunity_evidence_040229.html)
We've found water on Mars, scientists say
Mark Henderson, Science Editor of The Times
The gully that on Mars that scientists say was created by water (NASA/AP)
Liquid water has flowed on the surface of Mars within the past five years, according to new evidence that suggests the Red Planet could currently be capable of harbouring life.
Images taken from an orbiting spacecraft have revealed two fresh features in the Martian landscape that scientists think were been formed by brief torrents of water as recently as 2001.
Timeonline (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2490296,00.html)
PASADENA, California -- Evidence that suggests Mars was once a water-rich world is mounting as scientists scrutinize data from the Mars Exploration rover, Opportunity, busily at work in a small crater at Meridiani Planum. That information may well be leading to a biological bombshell of a finding that the red planet has been, and could well be now, an extraterrestrial home for life.
There is a palpable buzz here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California that something wonderful is about to happen in the exploration of Mars.
There is no doubt that the Opportunity Mars rover is relaying a mother lode of geological data. Using an array of tools carried by the golf cart-sized robot -- from spectrometers, a rock grinder, cameras and powerful microscopic imager -- scientists are carefully piecing together a compelling historical portrait of a wet and wild world.
Where Opportunity now roves, some scientists here suggest, could have been underneath a huge ocean or lake. But what has truly been uncovered by the robot at Meridiani Planum is under judicious and tight-lipped review
Space.com (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/opportunity_evidence_040229.html)