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Space Science

Geothermal Activity on Mars? 117

Posted by michael from the toast-marshmallows dept.
An anonymous reader writes "This article on the New Scientist site reports that Mars Odyssey has detected warm spots (20-40 degrees warmer irrespective of sunlight, day or night) in the Hellas basin."
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Geothermal Activity on Mars? More

Geothermal Activity on Mars?

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  • Question. (Score:4, Funny)

    by sekzscripting ( 687192 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @06:50AM (#6539049) Homepage
    Where do they get the names for the 'geography' of Mars? Sounds like something out of a "gangsta's dictionary".

    • Re:Question. (Score:5, Informative)

      by blowdart ( 31458 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @06:59AM (#6539070) Homepage

      An Italian astronomer named Schiaparelli created some of the first maps of Mars. He named features using words from biblical and mythical geography. Some of these names, such as Argyre, Hellas, and Tempe, are still used on maps and globes of Mars.

      In the 1970s, after the Mariner spacecraft flew by Mars, many new images were returned to Earth. A special group of people was formed to decide on names for the newly discovered features. This group also set up rules for naming future discoveries.

      All features on Mars have two names. The first is a formal name following the international rules that have been established. The other is a geologic name. The second name tells us what type of geologic feature it is. Following are some examples of geologic names:

      • Mons: mountain
      • Crater: circular depression
      • Dorsum: ridge
      • Planum: plateau or high plain
      • Fossa: depression (hole)
      • Valles: valley

      For example, Olympus Mons is a mountain formed by a volcano. It is named after Mount Olympus in Greece. Sometimes the name order is reversed. For example, in Valles Marineris, the geologic name comes first. Valles Marineris is a valley named after the Mariner spacecraft that first flew by Mars.

      Anyone can submit a name for a specific feature on Mars! The group meets once each year to consider appropriate names. If you would like to suggest a name for a feature on Mars, send your suggestion to the U.S. Geological Survey, Branch of Astrogeology, Room 409, 2255 N. Gemini Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86001.

      Rules for Naming Martian Features

      Large craters are named after deceased scientists who have contributed to the study of Mars.

      • Gusev (Maturei M., 1826-1866, Russian astronomer)
      • Lowell (Percival, 1855-1916, American astronomer)

      Small craters are named for villages and towns of the world with populations less than 100,000.

      • Aspen (Town in Colorado, USA)
      • Bira (Town in Russia)
      • Isil (Town in Spain)
      • Jama (Town in Tunisia)
      • Kakori (Town in India)

      Large valleys are named for the word used for Mars in various languages of the world.

      • Ares Vallis (word for Mars in Greek)
      • Mangala Valles (word for Mars in Sanskrit)
      • Marte Vallis (word for Mars in Spanish)
      • Mawrth Vallis (word for Mars in Welsh)
      • Nirgal Vallis (word for Mars in Babylonian)
      • Tiu Vallis (word for Mars in Old English)

      Small valleys are named for classical or modern names of rivers.

      • Indus Vallis (river in Pakistan)
      • Naktong Vallis (river in Korea)
      • Warrego Valles (river in Australia)

      All other features retain the names given by Schiaparelli or Antoniadi, another Italian astronomer.

      • Amazonis Planitia (classical name)
      • Libya Mons (classical name)
      • Olympus Mons (classical name)

      Rules for Naming Craters

      Naming rules exist for most features on planets, moons, and asteroids. The following are the regulations for craters:

      • Craters on Mercury are named after famous deceased artists, musicians, painters, or authors.
      • Large craters on Venus are named after famous women.
      • Small craters on Venus are given common female first names.
      • Large craters on Earth's moon are named after famous deceased scientists, scholars, or artists.
      • Small craters on the moon are given common first names.
      • Craters on Jupiter's moon Europa are given names of Celtic gods and heroes.
      • Craters on Jupiter's moon Ganymede are named for gods and heroes of the ancient Fertile Crescent people.
      • Craters on the asteroid Ida are named for caverns and grottos of the world.

      http://chainreaction.asu.edu/solarsystem/digin/nam e.htm [asu.edu]

    • Re:Question. (Score:3, Informative)

      by TripleA ( 232889 )
      Simply put, Hellas is greek for Greece.

      • Re:Question. (Score:5, Informative)

        by arcanumas ( 646807 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @08:11AM (#6539212) Homepage
        Yes. Hellas is greek for Greece. It is the "proper" world for Greece and the one used from Ancient to Modern Greece by Greeks themselves (whe say "Hellada").
        'Greek' is also of ancient origin and is the word that other European nations called the Ancient greeks. It comes from the Slav world "grex" (greek-latin conversion, sorry) , is a derogatory term and means "the imposter". There are other possibilities for the origin of the word but the aforementioned is the most convincing one.
        So, Europe (and US) call Hellas as Greece and Asian counties call us Yunanistan (And that's another story :)

        • Re:Question. (Score:3, Informative)

          by Ugmo ( 36922 )
          Don't feel so bad about being called an inaccurate name by foreigners.

          The Welsh in Wales are the remaining Celtic inhabitants of Britain before the Anglo-Saxons (and then Normans) came over and invaded. The Welsh name means "foreigners". The Anglo-Saxons thought the Welesh were foreigners when the Anglo Saxons were the ones who were foreigners.

          Ireland across the water is really Eire but was called Hibernia in Latin. Hibernia means wintery weather because it rains all the time there. In Italy the winters a

        • Re:Question. (Score:2, Informative)

          by Lady Jazzica ( 689768 )
          Here are two other origins for the word "Greek" or "Greece" that I found:

          The American Dictionary says [reference.com] that the work "Greek" comes "from Greek Graikos, tribal name."

          The Catholic Encyclopedia says [newadvent.org]:

          The land and the people that we call Greece and Greeks are in their own language Hellas and Hellenes. Greek is a form of the Latin Graecus, which in various modifications (grieche, grec, greco, etc.) is used in all Western languages. Graecus is Graikos, an older name for the people. Graikos was a mythical son of

        • Asian counties call us Yunanistan (And that's another story :)
          I am curious what is the story? Are there really any countries, other than Turkish speaking ones, calling Greece/Hellas as Yunanistan?

        • Re:Question. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by cpeterso ( 19082 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @08:17PM (#6542385) Homepage

          why do cultures insist on renaming other cultures' countries? Why is Germany not called Deutschland in English? That's like someone telling me his name is Larry and then I insist on calling him Daryl. This is disrespectful.
          • You think that's bad? Just try figuring out the names of the countries in Polish.

            When I was in Poland, I glanced through the window of a travel-agent, and noticed the countries had really weird names. Italy is called "Wlochy", Hungary is called "Wergy", and I have yet to figure out which country "Chorwacja" is. I'm curious as to the etimology of these names. Why are they so radically different from their names in other languages?

            Sounds like somebody's been eating too much borscht.

            PS. Hungarians are also
    • You wondered were they get the names for the 'geography' of Mars? Well, I wonder why it isn't called "martiography".
      • Well, I wonder why it isn't called "martiography".
        Actually, the correct term is "areography", from "Ares", the Greek god of War (aka "Mars" by the Romans). "Geography" on the moon is "Selenography". I do doubt they use such a term on Venus, "Aphroditography" isn't really a very practical term ;-)

        • Aphroditography (Score:1, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward
          I don't know, I wouldn't mind drawing Aphrodite's features.

  • Not surprising... (Score:4, Funny)

    by twilightzero ( 244291 ) <mrolfs@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Saturday July 26, 2003 @06:52AM (#6539055) Homepage Journal
    I'd be willing to bet that's where the martians have mass hot tubs and huge wild parties. If you listen closely, you can hear the cheap 70's porn music wafting up through the thin mars atmosphere...

    This post was brought to you by an extreme lack of sleep ;)

  • what this article is about (Score:5, Informative)

    by mandalayx ( 674042 ) * on Saturday July 26, 2003 @06:54AM (#6539062) Journal
    For those who 1) don't read the article and 2) don't know much about science, this is why this article is "important":

    Unusual warm spots on Mars might represent "ice towers" similar to those seen in Antarctica, say researchers. They could even harbour life, Nick Hoffman of Melbourne University told a conference on Thursday.

    Then the article talks about how some guy discovered this and what the further implications can be.
    • Yes, but what good is it if you can't get there because you're spending billions of $ on an orbiting piece of space junk and you don't have the $ or the gumption to get there?

      I think there is life there and the U.S. government thinks we can't handle the truth, so hence we don't go.

      Along the same lines, why haven't we gone back to the moon? Why didn't we finish the last few Apollo flights that were already bought and paid for?

      • I, for one, am GLAD! (Score:5, Interesting)

        by uptownguy ( 215934 ) <UptownGuyEmail@gmail.com> on Saturday July 26, 2003 @08:44AM (#6539279)
        I think there is life there and the U.S. government thinks we can't handle the truth, so hence we don't go.

        I suspect there is life, too. Of course I'm just an armchair scientist and this is just my humble opinion based on what I've read. Further, I suspect that "the government" (people, mostly) reads the same articles as you and is privy to the same data as you. That is what is great about living in an open society.
        I don't think there is any conspiracy keeping us from "handling" the truth. Why, you ask? Clinton couldn't keep things mum about getting blow jobs on the floor of the oval office. Nixon couldn't keep things mum about having broken into his political opponents' headquarters. Reagan couldn't keep things mum about having sold weapons to the Iranians to fund a terrorist army in Central America. Bush is having a problem keeping a lid on using forged documentation as a pretext for war (and WHO, pray tell, would forge such a thing anyway?) THESE are secrets that people would certainly have given anything to keep. And still they got out. Because "the government" isn't "the government" -- it is a bunch of people, all with agendas, all using what they know to their advantage when they can. Welcome to the wonderfully messy world of democracy.

        Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, the above wasn't my point -- but I had to debunk the tinfoil hat wearers in this crowd at least a little...

        I live in Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes. Most of those lakes are becoming unswimmable because of something called Eurasian Milfoil. Milfoil is a weed grows in lakes. It grows fast. Several feet a day. It was accidentally introduced to America in the early 1900s. It wasn't native but there isn't anything in the lakes on THIS side of the pond that like to eat it so it quickly clogs the entire lake.

        And it spreads. From lake-to-lake. Boaters. Fish. Whatever. It finds a way to find a new lake that it can call home and it does. And once it does: Game over everyone else. Not instantly. And there is still a lake there. There is still water. And fish. But now there is a stinky gross weed clogging the entire lake for most of the summer, too. Not really enjoyable. A lot of nose holding and "I remember when we could swim in the lakes without all these weeds here" going on.

        Hold on... I'm still building here. And I'm almost to the good stuff. (wait for it...)

        My point is this: Let's say there is life on Mars. There won't be cows or zebra or fish or anything like that. No, there will be microbes. Tiny little red life forms that live with almost no oxygen and no water in the freezing cold, bombarded by radiation. Hmmmm... I'm not sure about the rest of you, but the prospect of bringing something that battle-hardened back to Earth to study does not inspire confidence in me. Chernobyl, Enron, Challenger, Columbia, Africanized Killer Bees, cross-pollinated genetically engineered corn... bad things happen unexpectedly. Stuff LEAKS. Again, no conspiracy needed, just the good old second law of thermodynamics coupled with that one law discovered by Murphy making a real world demonstration.

        As I said in the subject of my post: I, for one, am glad we aren't going to Mars. We don't need any more milfoil, at least for now. Frankly, I'd be happy to see us wait a few thousand years. For real. Red mold everywhere? Yuck.
        • You make a good point, but I think we (meaning the human race) will go to Mars within the next twenty years. My prediction is that it will be the Chinese. The US would have severe problems funding it -- anti missile technology to protect against (well something) and other military projects will take priority. The Chinese want to be the next superpower. The recognition they would receive from pulling something like this off would be worth any investment to them.
          • The US would have severe problems funding it -- anti missile technology to protect against (well something) and other military projects will take priority.

            This is a little silly. The US would/could have no problem funding it as compared to China. We are orders of magnitude wealthier than the Chinese. We can fund things we don't really care about at levels as high, or perhaps even higher, than they can fund things that are their central goals.

            More significantly what you don't seem to realize is that spa

        • That's not an argument not to go to mars... (Score:5, Funny)

          by nounderscores ( 246517 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @09:52AM (#6539519)
          That's an argument to not come back.

          Imagine if we sent everyone we didn't like, just like in the colonial days of sail.

          Send them out into the worlds of ten thousand stars. They'll breed fast. Several children a decade. After all, we were accidentially introduced into america a long time ago, and we turned out ok. We weren't native but there wasn't anything on THIS side of the pond that like to eat us quick enough so now we're everywhere.

          We can spread. From planet to planet. Solar sails. Nuclear rockets. Whatever. We'll find a way to a new planet to call home. Once we do, we'll make it our business to ensure it's game over for everything else that metabolises. Not instantly, of course. There'll still be a planet there. Some natural parks. and little red microbes. But we'll terraform the place until it looks the way we like it to look.

          Hold on... I'm still building here. And I'm almost to the good stuff. (wait for it...)

          My point is this: Lets say there is life on mars. WE'LL KICK ITS /ASS(ES)|CARAPASE|SPINNERETTES|MANTLE|RING GANGLION|FLAGELLA|TAPROOT|HYPHAE|HOLDFAST|POSTERIO -VENTRAL REGIONS|Other appropriate target!/Hmmm... I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I am confident that my kind are battlehardened enough to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilisations, and fondue them. With appropriate technlogy they'd be able to live on not much more than dirt, water and sunlight.

          WE ARE THE BAD THINGS THAT HAPPEN UNEXPECTEDLY. We leak. Again, no conspiracy needed, just the good old second law of thermodynamics coupled with that one law discovered by Murphy making a real world demonstration that it applies to everyone in the universe, not just homo sapiens.

          As I said in the subject of my post: The inevitable spread of one lifeform over the corpses of another is not a reason to not to go to mars. It is a reason to go and never come back. The Brothers W made Agent Smith say that humanity spreads like a virus. I say that's not a bad idea. Imagine where we'll be in a few thousand years. For real. A human empire spanning most of the known universe with breakaway colonies running social experiments in government and morality? I'm packed. Bring it on!

          And yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil,
          For I am the evilest sonofabitch in the valley.           -- Anonymous, 1967

        • Too battle hardened (Score:5, Insightful)

          by DumbSwede ( 521261 ) <slashdotbin@hotmail.com> on Saturday July 26, 2003 @11:23AM (#6539899) Homepage Journal
          The trouble with extrapolating that battle hardened microbes will displace all competing microbes, is to overlook some of the main features of evolution. There are enough desolate places on Earth to breed such creatures, and they are populated by such creatures, but these hardy creatures don't displace the E-Coli in your gut. Why not? The adaptations to flourish in harsh environments depend of chemical tricks and adaptations that only work in harsh environments. Your lake weed example actually illustrates this point. These weeds evolved in very similar lake environments, and exploded in population only from lack of natural predators and parasites. Cactuses are very "battle hardened" plants, and yet are very unlikely to take over your Minnesota lakes.

          Should someone intentionally introduce Martian microbes to similar extreme environments here on Earth, we might see something similar, but contained within those extreme environments, and having little impact on that portion of the biosphere we usually experience. Sure it would have some environmental impact, but likely not disastrous. Most likely it would integrate with the local ecology, though perhaps not in way we would like. Esthetically you feel your lakes have suffered by introduction of a weed that wasn't native to the environment 100 years ago, but it's not the end of the world. Only evolution in action. The contamination of these lakes could have happened naturally, and a similar adaptation cycle would have occurred. I suspect introduction of alien species has little true long term impact on the biosphere. Which is not to say such disruptions are desirable, or don't have severe local impacts, aesthetically and economically.

          I would say it is likely we can bring back samples and contain them.
          If we have an accident, it is unlikely the microbes will spread because they are not adapted to the immediate environment.
          Should they somehow gain a toehold in an environment favorable to them, they will likely integrate with the ecology in some way, not totally displace it.
          All and all, I think these points argue well for taking the risk of sample return missions, the reward being unknown insights into biological processes.

          One final aside, I would use the International Space Station as a first containment stop for a sample return mission, and have written to NASA on this point. Not because is greatly enhances safety (and it probably adds to cost), but because it gives psychological reassurance to the general populace that NASA is doing everything to ensure safety, and it gives the ISS a true mission.

          • I'm glad someone pointed this out. We tend to think of organisms that live in environments inimical to human life -- deserts, the deep ocean, polar regions, etc. -- as "tougher" than those that live in environments we consider pleasant. But of course they're not; they're all equally tough for their own environment. A tropical flower is just as tough as a desert cactus -- put that flower in the desert, and of course it will die; put that cactus in the tropics, same thing.

            That being said, there are of cou

        • Earths pretty toxic (Score:4, Informative)

          by spineboy ( 22918 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @12:30PM (#6540267) Journal
          Uh don't forget that Oxygen is pretty toxic/caustic. If something has spent it's whole life in a relatively oxygen free low low pressure environment, then the sudden change will be horrible for that life form. Kinda like we humans trying to live on the surface of Venus - not going to happen.
        • don't think there is any conspiracy keeping us from "handling" the truth. Why, you ask? Clinton couldn't keep things mum about getting blow jobs on the floor of the oval office. Nixon couldn't keep things mum about having broken into his political opponents' headquarters. Reagan couldn't keep things mum about having sold weapons to the Iranians to fund a terrorist army in Central America. Bush is having a problem keeping a lid on using forged documentation as a pretext for war (and WHO, pray tell, would fo

        • Martian microbes are not the gods of war. (Score:1, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          "Tiny little red life forms that live with almost no oxygen and no water in the freezing cold, bombarded by radiation. Hmmmm... I'm not sure about the rest of you, but the prospect of bringing something that battle-hardened back to Earth to study does not inspire confidence in me."

          What you fail to realize is that there are such "hardened microbes here already. They've been here for nearly four thousand million years (since about when life began), and guess what? They haven't exactly taken over the planet,
    • typical science reporting

      "sceintists say that this break though could eventually lead to X"

      often with now logical path from A to X.

  • ...or perhaps.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by madmarcel ( 610409 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @06:54AM (#6539063)
    Or....
    It could be methane emmissions from all those cows/rednecks that them pesky martians keep abducting ;^)

  • w00t! (Score:2, Funny)

    by psiphre ( 454612 )
    maybe now i'll be able to visit mars to get some Hot Springs [hotsprings.org] action!

    it'll be business (and tourism) that fuels the race to mars. once someone can make money by sending people there, there will be people on mars 6 months later.

  • Doh it's obvious. (Score:3, Funny)

    by gilesjuk ( 604902 ) <giles.jonesNO@SPAMzen.co.uk> on Saturday July 26, 2003 @07:05AM (#6539080)
    Martians somewhere need to go somewhere to sunbathe and get drunk. How else do you think they get that nice green tan?
  • Of course it heats up on Mars! Why do you think it's red? Duh!

    And Uranus* is blue cos it's so cold.

    Hot things get red, cold things get blue - doesn't every kid know this?

    (*All those fans of Uranus/your anus jokes this is your cue. Go get 'em tiger.)

  • Beagle (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ella the Cat ( 133841 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @07:11AM (#6539094) Homepage Journal
    Slashdot Headline 26/12/2003 - Beagle confirms it has found a few isolated areas on Mars where it is possible to make a decent cup of tea. As yet, no evidence of rain.

    • Re:Beagle (Score:3, Funny)

      by bj8rn ( 583532 )
      29/12/2003: Mars got very, very angry after some Englishmen tried to make tea on his warm spots yesterday. England, Scotland and part of Wales wiped off the face of the Earth. Mars is accusing India, China and Sri Lanka of "supporting the terrorists". Tea prices are dropping fast all over the world.
    • Since the atmospheric pressure on mars is about 1% of that on earth, making a decent cup of tea is difficult. The water just wouldnt boil at the right temperature without using a pressure cooker. And anyone who makes tea in a pressure cooker needs serious help.

      I am sure that the next British endeavor will be to create a kettle and teapot that is compatible with the Mars atmosphere, just as we developed a rotary cooker for use on the ISS. Britain provide for family.

  • Evidence of ice towers? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AndroidCat ( 229562 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @07:29AM (#6539130) Homepage
    All they've got is some hot-ish spots, and Hoffman is talking about how high the ice towers are in Martian gravity. Perhaps the article skimmed his reasoning, but there seems to be a logical leap there with no proof that there are any ice towers.

    Even on Earth, there are a number of places with cold and volcanic vents, but ice towers form in only one place (the most extreme, granted). Obviously the conditions have to be just right. Other than being cold, Antarctica really isn't that much like Mars.

    The ice tower story sounds like either Hoffman was either playing to the media, or they were playing him.

    • Re:Evidence of ice towers? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by AndroidCat ( 229562 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @07:56AM (#6539181) Homepage
      On careful re-reading, I notice that the writer of the story is a bit sloppy about mixing statements and his own conclusions.
      That would provide the opportunity for the Mars Global Surveyor to capture high-resolution photos of the area, suggests Hoffman. The ice towers could grow as high as 30 m in the lower Martian gravity, and would stand out against the darker soil.
      Did Hoffman make the 30 m comment or did the writer? There seem to be a few places where this happens, as well as mixing comments from various people. Is Rachel Nowak a pen-name for Procrustes? (Greek mythology [mythweb.com], read a book!)
    • Ice tower like structures are found made of different materials in the oceans. A cross section of some types of mines (like diamonds) show the same structure on a different scale but out of other materials.
      • Sure, stuff come up hot, stuff cools down and piles up. Thus ice towers, deep ocean vents, diamond pipes, volcanoes, etc. Also, since the material that comes up is rich in needed elements and a source of energy, you tend to get life clustering around them.

        No doubt about it, if these warm spots have any water, they'd be excellent places to look for life.

  • Is that international units [wikipedia.org] or imperial [wikipedia.org]?

    Its a science article, so it should be international units, but /. is in the US, so it might not be.
    Not important, right? Its not like we ever lost a probe over such issues [askeric.org]...

    Sigh, its like some kind of conspiracy to force me to RTFA!
  • If the ice tower theory is true, what will this tell us? I think it answers more questions about the current but evolving state of our own planet than it tells us about the history of Mars.

  • I'm sorry, but I'm in a punny mood (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rhinobird ( 151521 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @08:13AM (#6539217) Homepage
    Mars Odyssey has detected warm spots in the Hellas basin.

    *ahem*

    Wow, it's Hellas hot around here.

    Thank you for your patience in this matter

  • "Canals" versus "Channels" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by vudufixit ( 581911 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @08:45AM (#6539284)
    Schiaperelli is also accidentally responsible for a lot of postulating about the existence of intelligent life on Mars. He observed dark "channels" possibly caused by natural water flow. In Italian, they are called, "Canali" and were mistranslated into English as "canals" which would tilt most folks' thinking in the direction of intelligence on Mars.
    • Actually, many of the channels he observed were optical illusions caused by the brain trying to play "connect the dots", which is why on many of the early hand-drawn maps you see such perfectly straight lines criss-crossing the surface.
      • The Pan Am ad from the 70s showed America picked out in bright city lights, all through from coast to coast, while canada and mexico were just dark, as if they had forgotten to pay their power bill.

        Does our world really look like that all over? With brighly lit highways from one city to another and visible jet trails from space? or do we look like random luminescent features and warm spots dotted around the surface? (of course it would be hard to miss that spacejunk though, on your final approach it would
      • Canals being optical illusions, blah, blah. Yes, there was Schaperelli and his "canali", but it was Lowell who really went to town with seeing canals. Do you suppose this was the "cold fusion" of its day? Do you think it is possible, and I don't know how to put this politely, that Lowell just "blew it out his ass?"

        It would be one thing if amateur astronomers with good telescopes, good observing sights, and lots of patience saw these canals all the time. It would be like the Face on Mars -- the darned

        • But there are plenty of people since Lowell who have seen them, and people continue to till this day. Even NASA was convinced they'd see something on Mars actually causing the channels when they sent Mariner, and you can't tell me they didn't have great telescopes at the time. They were somewhat surprised when the probe got there and they couldn't see anything remotely resembling canals. However, you need not break out a telescope and point it at the red planet to see this effect. Just get a group of pe

  • Celsius or Fahrenheit?? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by kisrael ( 134664 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @09:00AM (#6539323) Homepage
    OK, is New Scientist more of a scientific rag, meaning it's Celsius (and 30-40 is quite a lot!) or more of an American 'zine, meaning its Fahrenheit?


  • Theogermal activity would be a lot more interesting to everyone but the geologists.

  • Geothermal? (Score:1, Redundant)

    by pete-classic ( 75983 )
    Someone remind me what geo- means . . .

    -Peter
    • If you're going to be that pedantic, we should be called Earthans. Or Earthanoids. Or, if you want to use the latin name for our planet, Terrans (I've always been a fan of Terran)

  • Mars (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Crixus ( 97721 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @10:39AM (#6539734)
    I suspect that all of the things other postulate about Mars are true... ie. geothermal activity, microbial life, underground water. We now just need to send people there to prove it.

    Who's up for the trip?

    Rich...

  • Funny (Score:2, Funny)

    by PsibrII ( 671768 )
    Be funny if they went there expecting life, and all they found was an old alien thermoelectric generator someone forgot to turn off before they left the planet.
  • "Okay Guys, that Earth craft is just about to pass over us again. Get ready to make the traditional 'Hello' fart."
  • NASA just launched 2 rovers toward Mars. I wonder whether it is too late to change the target landing zones if more evidence turns up that these are ice-producing vents. They changed Viking's landing sites after arrival, so I expect they can do the same now. Except that because of lower relative budgets, newer probes sometimes don't have some of the luxuries of earlier ones.

    Further, I have read that the landing accuracy is not sufficient enough to pick specific spots. They generally shoot for "zones", not

    • Re:Rovers go there? (Score:2, Informative)

      by sandrift ( 636291 )
      Being a Mars scientist, I can help out here.

      The landing sites are not changeable at this point for a variety of reasons. First of all, they are successfully headed in the right directions now; to change the course of one significantly would be a risk that NASA is unlikely to take based on one scientist's un-peer-reviewed musings (and which may be explainable by other geologic phenomena such as relatively low albedo surfaces).

      Secondly, in addition to scientific interest, the landing sites are constrained
  • Fantastic! Amazing! Wonderful!

    Arethermic events and possibly ice towers!

    Too bad we're never going to go there to look them over. Manned missions are dead. What's the point of further exploration?

  • warm spot (Score:3, Funny)

    by iggymanz ( 596061 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @06:19PM (#6541932)
    The warm spot is antipodal to the Great Stone Face of Mars.

    Zapp: "The great stone face of Mars. Hmm, the only known entrance to the Martian Reservation."

    Leela: "What about the Great Stone Ass of Mars?"

    Zapp: "Well, yeah. But it's way on the other side of the planet."

    -- futurama

  • Maps (Score:2, Informative)

    by Whitecloud ( 649593 )
    Here's [nasa.gov] a photo of Mars, the elliptical bright feature at lower-center in the image is the Hellas Basin, the largest unequivocal impact basin (formed by an asteroid or comet) on the planet. Hellas is approximately 2200 km (1,370 mi) across. Really amazing detail, photo was taken by the Mars Global Surveyor, check out many more of its pics here [nasa.gov].

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