20 replies to this topic

[Waser Lave]

http://www.theregist...tream_bed_mars/

NASA has announced that the Curiosity rover has found evidence of a fast-moving stream that once flowed over the Martian surface.

"From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep," said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley in a statement.

"Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it."

Curiosity found the long-gone water course between the north rim of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, using its mast-mounted camera system to examine two outcroppings named "Hottah" and "Link."

Water-rounded gravel, ranging from small pebbles to rocks the size of golf balls, and the remains of a sedimentary streambed are clearly visible, albeit since fractured and twisted, possibly by a later meteoroid strike.



"Hottah looks like someone jack-hammered up a slab of city sidewalk, but it's really a tilted block of an ancient streambed," said Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology.

Despite the discovery, the Curiosity team isn't hopeful that the stream bed will be a good place to look for signs of organic life on Mars. They are still banking on finding that in the clay and sulfate minerals found on the sides of Mount Sharp.

"A long-flowing stream can be a habitable environment," said Grotzinger. "It is not our top choice as an environment for preservation of organics, though. We're still going to Mount Sharp, but this is insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment." ®

[Frizzle]

Science always makes me giggle like a school girl and gives me brain boners, even if I don't understand the majority of it.

[Waser Lave]

Science always makes me giggle like a school girl and gives me brain boners, even if I don't understand the majority of it.

It could be summarised by just saying they found some smooth pebbles which suggests water erosion. I wonder what the impact will be if/when they actually find solid evidence of life having lived on Mars though.

[luvsmyncis]

Bradbury was right. This feels ominous to me.

[Mew]

Well it's a start for sure....
I just wish they would send a rover to have a poke around cydonia.

[iargue]

It could be summarised by just saying they found some smooth pebbles which suggests water erosion. I wonder what the impact will be if/when they actually find solid evidence of life having lived on Mars though.

Nuke it

'MERICA FUCK YEAH

[Pilot]

Only a matter of time before we discover the mass effect.

[Josh]

Exciting stuff

[Deathscythe]

That's pretty cool.

[Waser Lave]

Exciting stuff

What kind of effect do you think finding life on another planet would have on the religious world?

[Deathscythe]

What kind of effect do you think finding life on another planet would have on the religious world?

Great question, I've wondered that myself. Given that most religions portray humans as the centre of the universe / most important lifeform / God's image, it would definitely rock the foundations of religion.

[infecthead]

What kind of effect do you think finding life on another planet would have on the religious world?

It will have a profound effect, that's for sure (whether that effect will be seen as negative or positive is up to you), however it will still be here, and will be here until humanity ends. Religion (much like evolution, funnily enough) adapts with the current world.

[Frank274]

What if Mars used to be "Earth" and after they ran out of resources, they built spaceships and came to present-day Earth? Could happen.

[Josh]

What kind of effect do you think finding life on another planet would have on the religious world?

No idea. Would have absolutely no effect on me. I can't really answer for the rest of the world

Great question, I've wondered that myself. Given that most religions portray humans as the centre of the universe / most important lifeform / God's image, it would definitely rock the foundations of religion.

I don't think finding life on another planet would nullify a religion's view that humans are the center. I firmly believe the Biblical account talks about Earth and the human race. Finding out there's another organism on another planet doesn't change that fact at all.

Edited by Josh, 28 September 2012 - 02:34 PM.

[redlion]

Only a matter of time before we discover the mass effect.

Or a way to harness electromagnetism. That seems much more likely than an entirely new discovery.

What if Mars used to be "Earth" and after they ran out of resources, they built spaceships and came to present-day Earth? Could happen.

There was a movie made on that premise. Forget what it was called... Red Planet maybe?

[infecthead]

What if Mars used to be "Earth" and after they ran out of resources, they built spaceships and came to present-day Earth? Could happen.

If that were so, then that would mean they/we would be technologically advanced to colonise another planet, and if so, how come we were so primitive thousands of years ago?

[redlion]

If that were so, then that would mean they/we would be technologically advanced to colonise another planet, and if so, how come we were so primitive thousands of years ago?

Can't have been all that primitive if the Egyptians calculated the curvature of the earth thousands of years before western Europeans did. Ancient civilizations also built pyramids on more than one continent, sometimes without the wheel, and in some cases even without beasts of burden.

I guess you could call that primitive if you're used to getting around in a Mercedes, but to 99.95% of all humans that have lived on earth, those are impressive accomplishments.

[Waser Lave]

Can't have been all that primitive if the Egyptians calculated the curvature of the earth thousands of years before western Europeans did. Ancient civilizations also built pyramids on more than one continent, sometimes without the wheel, and in some cases even without beasts of burden.

I guess you could call that primitive if you're used to getting around in a Mercedes, but to 99.95% of all humans that have lived on earth, those are impressive accomplishments.

There were also many thousands of years before the Egyptians though. Like when we were chasing mammoths around with spears and so on.

[Sweeney]

What if Mars used to be "Earth" and after they ran out of resources, they built spaceships and came to present-day Earth? Could happen.

Mars formed at the same time as Earth, though...

[infecthead]

Can't have been all that primitive if the Egyptians calculated the curvature of the earth thousands of years before western Europeans did. Ancient civilizations also built pyramids on more than one continent, sometimes without the wheel, and in some cases even without beasts of burden.

I guess you could call that primitive if you're used to getting around in a Mercedes, but to 99.95% of all humans that have lived on earth, those are impressive accomplishments.

Granted, however why then were we living in caves, able to make only the most basic of tools a million or so years ago?

[redlion]

Granted, however why then were we living in caves, able to make only the most basic of tools a million or so years ago?

Silly premise. I should have said so from the start. What's the use in arguing about primitive man as though the period wasn't the first iteration of human civilization?

I guess I've granted the thought some legitimacy for not denouncing it from the start, but all I can do is denounce it now.