Evidence Of Glaciers On Mars Suggests Recent Climate Activity

Last year, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured high-resolution images of the Red Planet which showed many mesas, valleys, and rock debris which appeared to be (geologically speaking) recent formations. A team of scientists from Brown University analyzed the photographs and found evidence that the terrain was carved by large glaciers much more recently than they thought possible. Climate activity on Mars was thought to have quieted over 3 billion years ago, but these glaciers would have been around within the last 10-100 million years. "The finding could have implications for the life-on-Mars argument by strengthening the case for liquid water. Ice can melt two ways: by temperature or by pressure. As currently understood, the Martian climate is dominated by sublimation, the process by which solid substances are transformed directly to vapor. But ice packs can exert such strong pressure at the base to produce liquid water, which makes the thickness of past glaciers on its surface so intriguing."

Re:next Mars probe lands on May 25, 2008

[boris111]

I wondered about that. It's intending to dig in icy areas right? How do they know it's won't be too icy as in they won't be able to get the hoe in the ground

Re:mods?

[funwithBSD]

WE don't know the Sun is getting hotter? Is that you and your little mouse?

Maybe he can read this to you really slowly:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/sun_output_030320.html

In what could be the simplest explanation for one component of global warming, a new study shows the Sun's radiation has increased by .05 percent per decade since the late 1970s.

The increase would only be significant to Earth's climate if it has been going on for a century or more, said study leader Richard Willson, a Columbia University researcher also affiliated with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The Sun's increasing output has only been monitored with precision since satellite technology allowed necessary observations. Willson is not sure if the trend extends further back in time, but other studies suggest it does.

"This trend is important because, if sustained over many decades, it could cause significant climate change," Willson said.

Oh right... inconvenient truth.

And might I remind you, we have better records of the Mars Ice Caps, going back to Galileo, on what the caps used to look like. They are shrinking.

Without human intervention.

I think the glaciers might still be there..

[jlehtira]

..only they're mostly covered with dust from dust storms.

Remember the patch of ice in a crater [esa.int]? It's supposedly up to 200 meters thick. On Earth, that would be a glacier. What else could it be?