Mars Lander Sees Falling Snow 118
Riding with Robots writes "NASA reports that the Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. According to the Canadian team running a weather experiment, a laser instrument designed to study how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers above the landing site. Data shows the snow vaporizing before reaching the surface, but one of the mission scientists said, 'We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground.' Spacecraft soil experiments have also provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water."
Re:If there is water... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:If there is water... IRONIC ftw! (Score:3, Interesting)
Neat, virga on Mars. (Score:5, Interesting)
Rain or snow, like virga, on Mars may not be consisting of water only. Here is the Wikipedia entry on virga:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virga [wikipedia.org]
Also Universities Space Research Association has some information on virga:
http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=47776 [usra.edu]
They have a excellent NOAA photo of virga.
Re:the excitement about finding water on mars (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Canadian Funding rounds (Score:3, Interesting)
With 26km of vertical [wikipedia.org], I'm bringing my skis.
Re:If there is water... (Score:2, Interesting)
"bleh... that'll teach me to post when awake..."
As opposed to what, posting when asleep? I don't know that that would turn out much better... ;)
Re:H2O Snow? (Score:3, Interesting)
That's actually far easier to determine than if it really was water that caused liquid erosion of the surface: all they had to do was to determine the temperature at which it evaporated.