New Data Indicates Arctic-Ocean Sized Body of Water on Ancient Mars 58
mdsolar writes After six years of planetary observations, scientists at NASA say they have found convincing new evidence that ancient Mars had an ocean. It was probably the size of the Arctic Ocean, larger than previously estimated, the researchers reported on Thursday. The body of water spread across the low-lying plain of the planet's northern hemisphere for millions of years, they said. If confirmed, the findings would add significantly to scientists' understanding of the planet's history and lend new weight to the view that ancient Mars had everything needed for life to emerge. Update: 03/05 22:42 GMT by T : Correction: that headline should have read "Arctic" initially, rather than Antarctic.
Eh? (Score:1)
Slashdot headline: "Antarctic ocean-sized"
Slashdot summary: "Arctic ocean sized"
Actual article: ??? (did not read)
Step 4: PROFIT!!
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And more importantly how many libraries of congress is that :p
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Per The Register [theregister.co.uk], should be 'Olympic-size Swimming Pools' - or Bulgarian Funbags, but the number would be large.
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FTA - enough to cover 17% of the earth, to a depth of 450 feet. (scribble scribble scribble carry the one, 2500 m3 per pool...)
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I didn't know that there was an "Antarctic ocean"
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No:
Update: 03/05 22:42 GMT by T : Correction: that headline should have read "Arctic" initially, rather than Antarctic.
Global Warming Wiped Out Mars? (Score:2)
You just get that feeling sometimes that humans, I mean Martians, wiped out the planet. It'd make a great movie anyway!
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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You don't know that. We don't even know what made Mars's magnetic field disappear.
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I can't say for certain, but evidence shows that it once did.
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That is irrelevant to the course of the discussion. Non-sequitur much?
Mars once had a magnetic field that was obviously strong enough to prevent solar erosion for some amount of time. At some point, it lost that magnetic field which turned Mars into the dustball that we know of today.
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Mars once had a magnetic field that was obviously strong enough to prevent solar erosion for some amount of time.
...or...
Mars was producing more gas than it was losing due to solar winds.
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Actually current evidence suggests that Mars sustained a major collision that caused it to lose its magnetic field.
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You don't get dibs on that movie. Shooting is already commencing on Earth.
Arctic or Antarctic? (Score:2)
Headline says one (Antarctic) while the summary says the other (Arctic). It's like swapping the Tropic of Cancer with the Tropic of Capricorn....
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Oh crap! Are we going to start getting bombarded by donation requests from the American Capricorn Society now?
Ocean sizes (Score:5, Informative)
First of all, the Slashdot headline is wrong. It is "arctic ocean" sized, not antarctic. Second, the article makes another comparison that makes more sense, since Mars and Earth aren't the same size (how big would the arctic ocean be placed on mars? Not something we can visualize). That is the ocean on Mars covered slightly more of the planet than the Atlantic ocean covers on Earth - the Mars ocean covered 19% of the planet, while the Atlantic covers 17% of the Earth. Of course the volume of water and depths are totally different.
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The evidence is that the water left (Score:2)
Dunes of Mars (Score:2)
"This would take a fleet of the last, bigger rovers with thumpers and sensors."
Thumpers? You want to attract a sandworm?
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Stop. He has the weirding way...
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Well in just one region, they found an underground patch the size of Texas and thirteen stories thick.
http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/blogs... [nasa.gov]
Use proper units (Score:5, Funny)
Number of [American] football fields or GTFO.
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Correct. The ancient Martian ocean was the same size as 39 Texases [wolframalpha.com], or 8,700 Rhode Islands [wolframalpha.com]. Or you could measure the volume with, of course, Olympic swimming pools. 7.91 trillion of them [wolframalpha.com].
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length? no, you're thinking of dollar bills stretched end to end.
I forget height, hustler magazines?
Where I grew up volume was measured in number of one of the great lakes, usually number of Lake Superiors. Pity none of us kids really had a sense of how deep the lakes are let alone their volume.
volume elsewhere is always Olympic swimming pools, but I think mini vans would be easier to comprehend. (if you've ever had to go on a trip in a minivan)
Yeah, that's cool and all, but... (Score:2)
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Totally. It was way gnarly.
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Water or ice or ice-covered water (Score:2)
Have we any reason to think the water was actually ever liquid on Mars's surface to any great extent.
The young sun would have been cooler than todays. Could the water not have been present as ice, or perhaps as an ocean covered by a thick layer of ice.
Obligatory (Score:2)