Blue, Not Red: Did Ancient Mars Look Like This? 75
astroengine writes "Using elevation data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, software engineer Kevin Gill was inspired to create a virtual version of the red planet with a difference. 'I had been doing similar models of Earth and have seen attempts by others of showing life on Mars, so I figured I'd give it a go,' Gill told Discovery News. 'It was a good way to learn about the planet, be creative and improve the software I was rendering it in.' He included oceans, lakes, clouds and a biosphere — a view of a hypothetical ancient Mars that looks wonderfully like home."
Re:BS (Score:5, Informative)
This is where using 2-3 minutes to read the fine article would have helped you out.
It is a software guy who just wondered what it would look like with earthly features. This is not based on any kind of facts other than the elevations.
Re:Um... (Score:4, Informative)
In Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, the northern ocean is filled with fresh water from the molten polar ice cap, while the rivers take up salt from the rocks they flow over, so there are salty rivers flowing into a fresh water ocean. I'm not sure how realistic that is, but it doesn't seem completely illogical.
As artist impressions go, I prefer this one [wikimedia.org], by Daein Ballard over the one in the article.
Re:BS (Score:3, Informative)
It implies that somebody (perhaps the submitter?) thought that the simulation is intended to be accurate.
As parent says - read TFA, it's meant to be a creative exercise.
Also read Kevin Gill's own explaination [google.com].