NASA Schedules Briefing to Announce Significant Find on Mars

[Donger]

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/dec/HQ_M06186_Mars_Briefing.html

MEDIA ADVISORY: M06-186

NASA Schedules Briefing to Announce Significant Find on Mars

WASHINGTON - NASA hosts a news briefing at 1 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Dec. 6, to present new science results from the Mars Global Surveyor. The briefing will take place in the NASA Headquarters auditorium located at 300 E Street, S.W. in Washington and carried live on NASA Television and www.nasa.gov.

The agency last week announced the spacecraft's mission may be at its end. Mars Global Surveyor has served the longest and been the most productive of any spacecraft ever sent to the red planet. Data gathered from the mission will continue to be analyzed by scientists.

Panelists include:
- Michael Meyer -- Lead Scientist, Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Michael Malin -- President and Chief Scientist, Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif.
- Kenneth Edgett -- Scientist, Malin Space Science Systems
- Philip Christensen -- Professor, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.

Reporters at participating agency field centers will be able to ask questions. For more information about NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit the web at:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

[FAX]

Yeah, baby!!!!

The face has a body, I'll bet.

FAX

[InChiefsHeaven]

Whew. Thank God they let us know about that. Wow. I mean, what an amazing peice of news! :p

[Donger]

Yeah, baby!!!!

The face has a body, I'll bet.

FAX

ROFL

Now that that's out of the way...

[Donger]

Whew. Thank God they let us know about that. Wow. I mean, what an amazing peice of news! :p

Sorry, but the possibility of liquid water flowing recently on the surface of Mars is huge.

[dirk digler]

They found water or Donger's dong.

Whichever was the smallest

[Donger]

They found water or Donger's dong.

Whichever was the smallest

Depends on how angry it is. Errrr, was.

[PinkFloyd]

Maybe they will announce that there is a winning football team on Mars, that actually knows how to tackle...

[StcChief]

Space ships for the little green men?

[Fish]

Space ships for the little green men?

They're gray...... duh......... ;)

[DMAC]

The surface of Mars is actually field turf.

[rad]

It's probably something stupid. Like fossilized water or something.

[dirk digler]

It's probably something stupid. Like fossilized water or something.

It is water

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2006/12/MarsNASAdrip_228x450.jpg

Dramatic new photographs of Mars have revealed the possible existence of water on its surface.

[Brock]

Wow, and I bet if they look really hard they'll find evidence of carbon too.

[InChiefsHeaven]

OK, I take it back. That is cool.

[DMAC]

It is water

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2006/12/MarsNASAdrip_228x450.jpgYep, STUPID! Significant is something like a Mountain Dew Christmas tree.

[PinkFloyd]

It is water

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2006/12/MarsNASAdrip_228x450.jpg


That looks like Phyillis Diller's ------ uhhhhhhhhhh ----- you know...

Just use your imagination !!!

[C-Mac]

Yeah, baby!!!!

The face has a body, I'll bet.

FAX

.

[trndobrd]

Billions of tax dollars and the brightest scientific minds have determined that....

[Braincase]

Next thing ya know, they'll be telling us that there's canals.

[Rain Man]

So what's the news? Is it really water? That would be cool. Maybe I can go settle there before I get too old.

[Braincase]

So what's the news? Is it really water? That would be cool. Maybe I can go settle there before I get too old.

Beat the Mars Land Rush. ROFL

[stumppy]

Jimmy Hoffa ?

[Ebolapox]

cool stuff...

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/mgs-20061206.html

NASA Images Suggest Water Still Flows in Brief Spurts on Mars

12.06.06



More Images:
+ Groundwater May Be Responsible
+ New Craters
+ Fresh Crater in Arabia Terra

NASA photographs have revealed bright new deposits seen in two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them sometime during the past seven years.

"These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, Washington.

Image right: A new gully deposit in a crater in the Centauri Montes Region. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
+ Full image and caption

Liquid water, as opposed to the water ice and water vapor known to exist at Mars, is considered necessary for life. The new findings heighten intrigue about the potential for microbial life on Mars. The Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor provided the new evidence of the deposits in images taken in 2004 and 2005.

"The shapes of these deposits are what you would expect to see if the material were carried by flowing water," said Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. "They have finger-like branches at the downhill end and easily diverted around small obstacles." Malin is principal investigator for the camera and lead author of a report about the findings published in the journal Science.

The atmosphere of Mars is so thin and the temperature so cold that liquid water cannot persist at the surface. It would rapidly evaporate or freeze. Researchers propose that water could remain liquid long enough, after breaking out from an underground source, to carry debris downslope before totally freezing. The two fresh deposits are each several hundred meters or yards long.


Image left: A new gully deposit in a crater in Terra Sirenum. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
+ Full image and caption

The light tone of the deposits could be from surface frost continuously replenished by ice within the body of the deposit. Another possibility is a salty crust, which would be a sign of water's effects in concentrating the salts. If the deposits had resulted from dry dust slipping down the slope, they would likely be dark, based on the dark tones of dust freshly disturbed by rover tracks, dust devils and fresh craters on Mars.

Mars Global Surveyor has discovered tens of thousands of gullies on slopes inside craters and other depressions on Mars. Most gullies are at latitudes of 30 degrees or higher. Malin and his team first reported the discovery of the gullies in 2000. To look for changes that might indicate present-day flow of water, his camera team repeatedly imaged hundreds of the sites. One pair of images showed a gully that appeared after mid-2002. That site was on a sand dune, and the gully-cutting process was interpreted as a dry flow of sand.


Image right: A colorized view of a new crater on the upper north flank of the Martian volcano Ulysses Patera. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
+ Full image and caption

Today's announcement is the first to reveal newly deposited material apparently carried by fluids after earlier imaging of the same gullies. The two sites are inside craters in the Terra Sirenum and the Centauri Montes regions of southern Mars.

"These fresh deposits suggest that at some places and times on present-day Mars, liquid water is emerging from beneath the ground and briefly flowing down the slopes. This possibility raises questions about how the water would stay melted below ground, how widespread it might be, and whether there's a below-ground wet habitat conducive to life. Future missions may provide the answers," said Malin.

Besides looking for changes in gullies, the orbiter's camera team assessed the rate at which new impact craters appear. The camera photographed approximately 98 percent of Mars in 1999 and approximately 30 percent of the planet was photographed again in 2006. The newer images show 20 fresh impact craters, ranging in diameter from 7 feet (2 meters) to 486 feet (148 meters) that were not present approximately seven years earlier. These results have important implications for determining the ages of features on the surface of Mars. These results also approximately match predictions and imply that Martian terrain with few craters is truly young.

Mars Global Surveyor began orbiting Mars in 1997. The spacecraft is responsible for many important discoveries. NASA has not heard from the spacecraft since early November. Attempts to contact it continue. Its unprecedented longevity has allowed monitoring Mars for over several years past its projected lifetime.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, manages the Mars Global Surveyor mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov


Media contacts: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Erica Hupp/Dwayne Brown 202-358-1237/1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington

06-362

[Donger]

It seems a pity that we f*cked around with the shuttles and the ISS for thirty f*cking years when we could have been moving towards a manned Mars mission.

[C-Mac]

The Mars stuff is interesting but not much has really changed since July 1976 when the Viking took the first upclose pics. The best thing NASA has done in the last 40 years is put the eye of Hubble Telescope in space, now that has produced truly awe inspiring pictures.

[Ultra Peanut]

A long time ago
There used to be water
But I haven't thought of it lately at all

[boogblaster]

If its a birthday ballon that says "Happy Birthday Billy" its mine it floated away 49 years ago and I want it back .....

[Archie F. Swin]

now if a cloud forms...were on to something

[tiptap]

It seems a pity that we f*cked around with the shuttles and the ISS for thirty f*cking years when we could have been moving towards a manned Mars mission.


You can't drop bombs efficiently from Mars. It is better to spend those resources to cover the military entry into space. You didn't think that the Government had any military interest in Mars.... yet.

[Braincase]

It seems a pity that we f*cked around with the shuttles and the ISS for thirty f*cking years when we could have been moving towards a manned Mars mission.

With the radiation, any astronaut would be dead before they touched down on Mars with today's shielding. Need to solve the UFT and create some decent shields.

[stanleychief]

Jimmy Hoffa ?

Close!

http://internal.drpixel.net/mars.jpg

[BucEyedPea]

I wondering' how this improves our lives?
Oh I see! A great place for a new bottled water plant. Cosmos Water!
Some expensive bottle water that'll be.

[007]

Close!

http://internal.drpixel.net/mars.jpg
ah crap. ONe more reason to not give a damn about Mars.

[Imon Yourside]

I'm almost positive Al Gore will blame global warming as the cause.

[Oh Snap]

Who the F cares if theres water there or not? How does that help us earthings out?

[mikey23545]

Who the F cares if theres water there or not? How does that help us earthings out?

I'm sure there's very little that could help you, Einstein...

[InChiefsHeaven]

I'm almost positive Al Gore will blame global warming as the cause.

Nah. Big Oil... :hmmm:

[MahiMike]

They're just trying to justify their existence again. This whole boondoggle is the biggest waste of money next to IRAQ.

[InChiefsHeaven]

They're just trying to justify their existence again. This whole boondoggle is the biggest waste of money next to IRAQ.

Does NASA have something to do with Iraq? :spock:

[BucEyedPea]

They're just trying to justify their existence again. This whole boondoggle is the biggest waste of money next to IRAQ.
Probably more true than anything. Especially when one knows of the constant cost overruns that part of our govt is rife with. Like I said some expesnive bottled water.

[boogblaster]

Bottle it, they will come ....

[Bowser]

Somebody needs to send AHHH-Nold to the Martian Underground so he can activate the ancient Martian Atmospheric Device.

[HemiEd]

Very interesting stuff, it has been exciting watching the space program evolve over the years.

[Redrum_69]

now they found water on mars?



How long will it be before we see "Fresh from Mars" water...

[Rain Man]

I wondering' how this improves our lives?
Oh I see! A great place for a new bottled water plant. Cosmos Water!
Some expensive bottle water that'll be.

You won't be so skeptical when the giant asteroid hits earth and we have to repopulate it from our Martian colonies of Rainmania and Chiefs City.