Mars

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Anomaly Hunter Spots 'Door' on Mars

While searching NASA images for oddities on Mars, an anomaly hunter spotted an unusual feature that he believes to be a doorway carved into the face of a rock. The peculiar find was made by indefatigable UFO researcher Scott Waring as he examined a photo that was taken by the Perseverance rover earlier this month. When looking at the photo, his eyes were quickly drawn to a distinct square shape on a rock sitting in the horizon. According to his estimate, the possible doorway measures approximately six-and-a-half feet on each side with perfect 90 degree angles at each corner.

Marveling over the fantastic find, Waring mused "whats the chance that a perfect square entrance would be found on Mars" and theorized that the suspected doorway could lead to "a huge, huge complex" beneath the surface of the planet. The anomaly hunter also expressed dismay that NASA captured the curious shape in the image, but apparently did not find it intriguing enough to further investigate. The reasoning behind that may be that, as many skeptics will suggest, the 'door' is merely a trick of light and shadow or natural weathering.

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As Above So Below



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As Above So Below

'Marsquake' confirmed to be strongest tremor ever detected beyond the Earth

While the surface of Mars is today little more than a cold, barren wasteland, deep beneath the planet's crust there is still a considerable amount of heat left over from its formation billions of years ago. As that heat dissipates, the crust of Mars warps and contracts, producing 'marsquakes' that can be picked up with the right instruments such as the seismometer that was deployed by NASA's InSight lander before it eventually ran out of power at the end of last year.

A few months before it died, however, it picked up what is effectively the most significant seismic event ever detected on another world - a 4.7-magnitude tremor dubbed S1222a.

This event was so large, in fact, that it exceeded all of the 1,300+ other tremors detected by the spacecraft put together - leading scientists to suspect that it may have been produced by a meteor impact on the surface rather than seismic activity below it. Now, though, the results of further investigation have ruled out this possibility, meaning that what the spacecraft picked up was indeed a seismic event unlike any detected off-world before.

It wasn't particularly unexpected, either, as scientists had previously predicted that quakes up to a magnitude of 5 might be picked up by InSight during its mission. "This is a nice confirmation that the estimates weren't wildly wrong," said Benjamin Fernando of the University of Oxford who lead the research. "Mars really does support these pretty hefty marsquakes. 4.7 on Earth wouldn't bring your house down, but you'd certainly notice it."


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Odd Formations on Mars Are Not Ordinary Strata After All, But Likely Clues to Ancient Habitat - The Debrief

ODD FORMATIONS ON MARS ARE NOT ORDINARY STRATA AFTER ALL, BUT LIKELY CLUES TO ANCIENT HABITAT​

CHRISTOPHER PLAIN·OCTOBER 27, 2023
NASA

The Perseverance rover explores the Jezero crater on Mars (Credit: NASA).

Odd formations on Mars discovered by the Curiosity rover, initially dismissed as ordinary strata, may be signs that the red planet was once home to a vast array of habitable rivers potentially teeming with alien life.
If confirmed, the findings would add to the growing body of evidence that Mars was not only wet in the past but had longstanding bodies of water capable of harboring all kinds of life forms.
“Our research indicates that Mars could have had far more rivers than previously believed, which certainly paints a more optimistic view of ancient life on Mars,” said Benjamin Cardenas, assistant professor of geosciences at Penn State and lead author on a new paper announcing the discovery.“It offers a vision of Mars where most of the planet once had the right conditions for life.”

SIMULATIONS FIND COMPELLING EVIDENCE FOR HABITABLE ANCIENT MARTIAN RIVERS

Known as bench-and-nose landforms, the telltale formations interested researchers because they are typically made by rivers of flowing water over extensive periods on Earth. This similarity led the team to build computer models designed to simulate events from Mars’ past and see if ancient rivers could have made similar formations. Their findings could dramatically alter the search for life on Mars.
Unique formations on Mars
Bench-and-slope morphology pictured on Mars and nose morphology from the ground at Mar’s Mont Mercou outcrop. Credit: NASA/Caltech-JPL/MSSS.
First, the Penn State team input data gathered by satellites and images captured by Curiosity into their simulations. Next, they input detailed 3D scans of rock layers, a.k.a. strata, deposited over millions of years beneath the Gulf of Mexico. This data was collected 25 years ago by oil companies, and the researchers say it is a perfect analog for Mars.
After running their simulations, the team found something incredible. According to the press release announcing the new findings, “the model revealed erosional Martian landscapes that formed topographic benches and noses, rather than fluvial ridges, appearing almost identical to landforms observed by the Curiosity rover inside the Gale crater.”
This meant that rivers likely not only flowed on Mars in its ancient past but were way more commonplace than previously thought. The research team says this would be incredibly significant, as these additional rivers dramatically increase the chances that ancient life lived and potentially called Mars home.
“This suggests that there could be undiscovered river deposits elsewhere on the planet and that an even larger section of the Martian sedimentary record could have been built by rivers during a habitable period of Mars’ history,” Cardenas explained. In fact, he noted that river corridors on earth are “so important for life, chemical cycles, nutrient cycles, and sediment cycles,” and that “everything is pointing to these rivers behaving similarly on Mars.”

FORMATIONS ON MARS ADDING TO CASE FOR THE PLANET SUPPORTING ANCIENT LIFE

The researchers note that previous analyses of the red planet have identified possible locations of lakes and rivers, with the latter of those identified by something known as fluvial ridges. Like the bench-and-nose formations revealed by the team’s simulations, these ridges are also typically associated with rivers on Earth. But in this case, the team says they found signs of river deposits “that are not associated with fluvial ridges, but rather bench-and-nose landforms that have never been linked to ancient river deposits.”

Taken together with signs of ancient lakes, evidence of an ancient Martian atmosphere, and dozens of other clues pointing to a wet, life-friendly planet that lasted for hundreds of millions of years, this new data is helping to make a convincing case that life likely not only lived, but thrived, but these unique formations on Mars are simply another sign that a majority of the planet was habitable and not just a few select areas.
“We’re finding evidence that Mars was likely a planet of rivers,” Cardenas said. “We see signs of this all over the planet.”
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.
 

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Humans are already trashing Mars - despite never setting foot on it: Shocking map reveals the 15,694lbs of space junk piling up on the Red Planet including crashed spacecraft and discarded drill bits

Despite never even setting foot on the planet, human-made space junk is already piling up on Mars.

A new map reveals the locations of debris from spacecraft that have landed on Mars in the past 53 years, including the now defunct Ingenuity helicopter.

This junk includes bits of metal landing equipment, heat shields, used parachutes, clipped rotor blades, drill bits and even fabric netting.

Cagri Kilic, a professor of aerospace engineering at West Virginia University, estimates that there's already a staggering 15,694lbs of human trash on Mars.

To put that into perspective, it's about the same weight as a fully-grown African elephant!

The new map reveals the locations of debris from spacecraft that have landed on Mars in the past 53 years (since the first human-made object touched the planet in 1971), including the now defunct Ingenuity helicopter

The new map reveals the locations of debris from spacecraft that have landed on Mars in the past 53 years (since the first human-made object touched the planet in 1971), including the now defunct Ingenuity helicopter


Examples include Russia's Mars 2 lander, which became the first man-made object to touch the surface of Mars when it crash-landed in May 1971.

There's also Beagle 2, the British spacecraft that touched down on the Red Planet in December 2003 but was subsequently lost.

Now, they're joined by NASA's 'Ingenuity' helicopter, which is no longer capable of flight after smashing one of its rotor blades on January 18.

Of course, all these spacecraft demonstrated the remarkable feat of reaching a planet 140 million miles away – and many performed worthy science experiments once they touched down.

But once machines stop working on Mars, there they stay – turning Mars into something of a dumping ground.


(More on the link)

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