CO2 Jets Bursting From Martian Ice Cap?

jeffsenter writes "NASA believes this may be the scene on the Martian South Pole as spring-time sunlight heats dust trapped in a layer of CO2 ice, causing it to sublime and ultimately burst through the seasonal upper dry ice layer. Here is the press release based on the findings in visible light and infrared from NASA's Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor. Actual pictures of the spotting presumably caused by CO2/dust bursts on the Martian pole."

Not bushes

[not-my-real-name]

I remember seeing these pictures or ones like them on a "weird science" web site a year or two ago. They thought that the pictures might show bushes growing on Mars. I guess you could consider the CO2 jets to be very fast growing bushes. The jets do seem more plausable though.

Re:

[bradkittenbrink]

I guess you could consider the CO2 jets to be very fast growing bushes.

Yeah, right! On what planet?

Cue the global warming activists

[EmagGeek]

Time to start regulating CO2 emissions on mars!

Re:

[lasthemy]

I view Mars as the future of Earth. Quite a few recent articles about Mars should sound familiar to environmentalists.

Re:

[whitehatlurker]

It's frellin' cold on Mars. A bit of global warming would be welcome.

Uhm

[Trogre]

They're not green are they?

To the Batmobile Al Gore

[coop247]

Dont worry ignorant Martians, Al Gore will be there soon to save you from yourselves.

Feel free to zap him with your fancy lasers, we won't miss him.

Re:

[thedeviluknow]

Umm... perhaps you mean "lose" the race for president. As for fake environmentalist even a fake one is preferable to none at all.

Pure confusion

[alienmole]

They're talking about carbon dioxide (CO2) ice. In Earth's atmosphere, CO2 turns to gas at temperatures above -78C. On Mars, with no atmospheric pressure, it would be gaseous at even lower temperatures. So the fountains would happen as soon as the temperature rose above whatever that point is. Now who's lost the plot?

Re:Pure wanker?

[NotZed]

We'll see who's right, if they ever waste the money to go visit.

Take it like a man

[alienmole]

You were quite happy to accuse scientists of having lost the plot, but it seems you're not so ready to accept that your own criticism in fact applied to you.

The wonderful thing about science is that it allows us to make good predictions about many things without necessarily wasting the money to visit a place. (Although in this case, they have visited, and the information on which this latest theory is based comes largely from a satellite in Mars orbit.)

We already know that Mars has CO2 ice, and we can calc

Get yo ass to mars

[nycheetah]

What is this, Total Recall?

Thanks for pulling that tracking device out of your nose, I think it helped with your accent ;)

Atmospheric pressure

[Viol8]

Would this change the atmospheric pressure of mars significantly or even in
the local area of the vents?

Re:

[merlin_jim]

Not generally. A planet is a big thing; a little localized outgassing probably wouldn't even be detectable a few meters away...

On the other hand, the polar caps themselves take up and release significant amounts of CO2 seasonally... though I would speculate that even that is an insignificant amount of mass...

Re:

[deathCon4]

All of the outgassing and sublimation of the CO2 Cap over and entire Martian Summer (200-300 sols) does effect the atmospheric pressure of the planet .. but only increases it by 1-2 mb. Earth has an atmo. press of ~1013mb .. Mars ~8mb.

Quaaaaaid ..

[PriceIke]

... start ... the reactor .....

See you at the pahty, Victah!