Mars Rover Finds Signs of Seasonal Floods (arstechnica.com) 12
NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered signs of seasonal floods on Mars at a site called Gale Crater. Ars Technica reports: About 3,000 Martian days into its exploration, the rover was at a site that dates to roughly 3.6 billion years ago, during Mars' relatively wet Hesperian period. And it came across what would be familiar to gamers as a hex grid: hundreds of hexagonal shaped rock deposits in the area of a few centimeters across and at least 10 centimeters deep. These features are small enough that they'd be easy to overlook as simply another collection of wind-swept debris on the red planet. But up close, they're striking: large collections of hexagons that share sides, creating a regular grid. While there's some irregularity, the lines separating them largely form three-way intersections with equal angles between each line. And, in places where erosion has had different effects on nearby instances, it's clear that individual hexagons are at least 10 centimeters in height.
Similar shapes have been seen on Pluto, formed by convection of an icy surface. But these are far, far larger, able to be detected from a considerable distance from Pluto. The tiny size of the hexes on Mars is completely incompatible with convection. Instead, it has to be the product of mud drying out, creating cracks as the material contracts. The water itself could either come externally, in the form of a flood, or via groundwater that soaks up to the surface. But again, the tiny size of these features is decisive, indicating that only the top few centimeters got wet, which is incompatible with a groundwater source. To form the regular, hexagonal shapes also means repeated cycles -- experiments show that at least a dozen cycles are needed before you start to get the equal angles at the junction.
So, simply based on their shape, it appears that these hexagons are the product of repeated flooding. The chemistry backs this up. The rocks in the lines that separate individual hexagons are largely a mixture of calcium and magnesium sulfates, which will readily precipitate out of water as conditions get drier. These deposits will form harder rocks than the dried mud that comprises the bulk of the hexagons. The researchers behind the work note that the apparently regular, mild wet/dry cycling is incompatible with a lot of ideas about the source of water in Mars' past, such as volcanic melting of ice deposits. Instead, it's consistent with mild seasonal flooding, although there's no way to tell if the cadence was tied to Mars' orbit given what we currently know. The findings have been published in the journal Nature.
Similar shapes have been seen on Pluto, formed by convection of an icy surface. But these are far, far larger, able to be detected from a considerable distance from Pluto. The tiny size of the hexes on Mars is completely incompatible with convection. Instead, it has to be the product of mud drying out, creating cracks as the material contracts. The water itself could either come externally, in the form of a flood, or via groundwater that soaks up to the surface. But again, the tiny size of these features is decisive, indicating that only the top few centimeters got wet, which is incompatible with a groundwater source. To form the regular, hexagonal shapes also means repeated cycles -- experiments show that at least a dozen cycles are needed before you start to get the equal angles at the junction.
So, simply based on their shape, it appears that these hexagons are the product of repeated flooding. The chemistry backs this up. The rocks in the lines that separate individual hexagons are largely a mixture of calcium and magnesium sulfates, which will readily precipitate out of water as conditions get drier. These deposits will form harder rocks than the dried mud that comprises the bulk of the hexagons. The researchers behind the work note that the apparently regular, mild wet/dry cycling is incompatible with a lot of ideas about the source of water in Mars' past, such as volcanic melting of ice deposits. Instead, it's consistent with mild seasonal flooding, although there's no way to tell if the cadence was tied to Mars' orbit given what we currently know. The findings have been published in the journal Nature.
Hexagons are the Bestagons (Score:2)
Common on Earth, too (Score:5, Interesting)
What these all have in common is that hexagons are a good approximation for a circle, and so have the least perimeter for enclosing a given area. (Using circles instead of hexagons is problematic, because you inevitably get interstitial spaces between the circles - voids in what should be a complete tiling.) When bulk materials want to shrink, contract, and crack, doing so in a hexagonal pattern minimizes the number of fractures needed to relieve the strain. It doesn't happen everywhere, and doesn't happen in perfectly regular ways, but it's pretty cool to see the natural optimization at work.
And let's not forget that bees build their hives in hexagonal arrays. Why? Because despite their industriousness, bees still have an incentive to be lazy. Using hexagons requires less wall-building than, say, a square grid.
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I read that as Mars Rover finds signs of seasonal foods.
Maybe you were subconsciously reminded of Mars bars? Then again, AFAICT candy bars aren't seasonal...
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I read that as Mars Rover finds signs of seasonal foods.
The Martian Winter brings delicious melons and squash.
Just great. As if going to Mars wasn't expensive enough.
Next thing you know Whole Foods will open a store there.
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lesson (Score:3)
Don't be like Mars. The Martians were wiped out by climate change, because they were not sufficiently righteous.
Mud cracks (Score:2)
Which does make a useful point - it shows that 3.5 billion years ago the Martian surface had