[QUOTE]Researchers have discovered evidence that there's a lot more water on Mars--at least on parts of Mars--than anyone previously thought. Using new technology, scientists examined the water content in meteorites from the planet, and it points to a lot of it in the Martian mantle.
The meteorites they studied are called shergottite meteorites, and they likely broke off from Mars about 2.5 million years ago. Even though the meteorites had a different elemental composition, the amount of water was consistent, bolstering the idea that they're representative of the planet as a whole.
We've actually known there's been water on the surface for a while, but how it got there was a little hazier. Now we have an idea: volcanoes sent it out. As Carnegie Institution For Science investigator Erik Hauri, who performed the analysis, explained in a statement:
[quote]There has been substantial evidence for the presence of liquid water at the Martian surface for some time. So it’s been puzzling why previous estimates for the planet’s interior have been so dry. This new research makes sense and suggests that volcanoes may have been the primary vehicle for getting water to the surface.[/quote]
Water under the mantle also clues us in a bit to the planet's geological history, suggesting H2O played a role in its formation.
So how much water are we talking about? At least in the samples, a lot of it. On average, a little more than Earth has. The samples suggested parts of Mars have between 70 and 300 parts per million water, while Earth's mantle averages about 50 to 300 parts per million. Two questions it raises: Could Mars ever have sustained life in the past, and would this make it easier to do in the future?[/quote]
Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-06/mars-might-have-lot-more-water-we-thought[/url]
More water means more chances of finding fossilized bacteria and more chances of making a discovery that proves extraterrestrial life exists for sure.
Is it wet?
[QUOTE=ColossalSoft;36450651]Is it wet?[/QUOTE]
Are you asking if the water's wet?
[QUOTE=ColossalSoft;36450651]Is it wet?[/QUOTE]
Nope. Dry as a bone.
uh
so where did all that water go?
[QUOTE=ColossalSoft;36450651]Is it wet?[/QUOTE]
You mean liquid?
But they are still gonna have a problem making a home on Mars seeing as the temperatures suck.
[QUOTE=Mon;36450787]uh
so where did all that water go?[/QUOTE]
the guy inside the rover drank it
[QUOTE=Moka;36450907]But they are still gonna have a problem making a home on Mars seeing as the temperatures suck.[/QUOTE]
Luckily, air conditioners/heaters.
[QUOTE=Mon;36450787]uh
so where did all that water go?[/QUOTE]
Super Kami Guru drank it.
-snip-
[QUOTE=AJisAwesome15;36450724]Are you asking if the water's wet?[/QUOTE]
Reminds me of when I taking a tour of Space Center Houston, and part of it was a speech about the astronauts and what they do and eat in space. There was a Q&A session after the talk about the dehydrated food they eat and some kid asked if they drank dehydrated water :v:
So wait, they're suggesting that all of the water is underground, like in tunnels and shit? Just build a well on Mars and we can make a space western town for real!
[QUOTE=Mon;36450787]uh
so where did all that water go?[/QUOTE]
Surface water probably froze or evaporated, and the rest will be underground kinda like water tables on Earth.
[editline]23rd June 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Rainhorror;36451905]So wait, they're suggesting that all of the water is underground, like in tunnels and shit? Just build a well on Mars and we can make a space western town for real![/QUOTE]
If we can essentially make Firefly I'll be one of the first colonists, as long as there are no Reavers :ohdear:
[QUOTE=Mon;36450787]uh
so where did all that water go?[/QUOTE]
[i]The following are personal theory's and may be stupid to read. Do so at you're own risk.[/i]
Same place water tries to go here on Earth. Down. My guess is since Mars does not have gigantic craters to show oceans, that the water that was there was very few and far between. Possibly veins of rivers, puddles of lakes. Not much else. And if that's the case then it settled, and when that happened it seeped through the soil down underground.
Another possibility is the water is primarily underground in the first place and the bits we are finding now are the cause of the surface stretching allowing the water to surface.
[editline]23rd June 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Pierrewithahat;36451934]Surface water probably froze or evaporated, and the rest will be underground kinda like water tables on Earth.
[editline]23rd June 2012[/editline]
If we can essentially make Firefly I'll be one of the first colonists, as long as there are no Reavers :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
Just don't live on any settlements that have those airpacks.
[QUOTE=ColossalSoft;36450651]Is it wet?[/QUOTE]
Yeah, mars gets wetter every time we shove a rover in one of its craters
[QUOTE=Mon;36450787]uh
so where did all that water go?[/QUOTE]
Well either it's still hiding underneath the surface, or it evaporated when the Martian atmosphere thinned and no longer was capable of holding liquid water.
With the theory that life on earth might have come from space rocks being flung into space from mars, couldn't our water have come from there as well if Mars supposedly had more water than earth does?
[QUOTE=Mon;36450787]uh
so where did all that water go?[/QUOTE]
Well, it's likely that as Mars cooled down over the eons after its creation, it probably seeped into the underground as the deathly cold set in and Mars gradually became a cold dead world. There's probably plenty of water ice in caverns beneath the surface.
In other semi-related news, there might be a Lot More Life in the Universe Than what We Know, or Knew. I don't know.
[QUOTE=ColossalSoft;36450651]Is it wet?[/QUOTE]
Reminds me when a kid in the school's buffet yelled ''WET SOUP IS BEING SERVED TODAY!''
The water rose up into the space and flew all the way to earth.
Awesome, maybe we can find out even more if we got some astronaut's ther- oh.
Anything we find proving life is just going to be scrutinized, even by the very people who discovered it. We'll have to do it at least twice
AND YOU KNOW WHAT WATER EQUALS TO RIGHT?
IT EQUALS TO
[SP]LIFE[/SP]
I just hope that if we drill down we don't accidentally wake up some eldritch horror sleeping below the surface, waiting for life to return
Wait that would actually be really cool
We just need to figure out how to restore the atmosphere to an earth like condition, or at least one where humans are able to survive in.
[QUOTE=Medevilae;36455785][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Px5Fl.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
was not expecting this, scared the shit out of me
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