Mars

Toroid

Founding Member
Planet-wide dust storm on Mars that happens every 6-8 Earth years or 3-4 Mars years.
Video reveals how Martian-wide dust storm transformed the red planet | Daily Mail Online
Experts first saw a small scale dust storm on May 30, which has now gone global
  • Dust storm envelops the entire surface of the red planet every six to eight years
  • Astronomers don't understand exactly why or how these storms form
  • They are now using all of the instruments available to find out more
  • Skygazers here on Earth can witness the storm through their telescope

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU1izXOHEms
 

Toroid

Founding Member
A large liquid water lake has been found beneath Mars.
Researchers Detect Huge Lake Beneath Surface Of Mars | HuffPost
NEW YORK (AP) — A huge lake of salty water appears to be buried deep in Mars, raising the possibility of finding life on the red planet.

The discovery, based on observations by a European spacecraft, generated excitement from experts. Water is essential to life as we know it, and scientists have long sought to prove that the liquid is present on Mars.

“If these researchers are right, this is the first time we’ve found evidence of a large water body on Mars,” said Cassie Stuurman, a geophysicist at the University of Texas who found signs of an enormous Martian ice deposit in 2016.

Scott Hubbard, a professor of astronautics at Stanford University who served as NASA’s first Mars program director in 2000, called it “tremendously exciting.”

“Our mantra back then was ‘follow the water.’ That was the one phrase that captured everything,” Hubbard said. “So this discovery, if it stands, is just thrilling because it’s the culmination of that philosophy.”

The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science, does not determine how deep the reservoir actually is. This means that scientists can’t specify whether it’s an underground pool, an aquifer-like body, or just a layer of sludge.

To find the water, Italian researchers analyzed radar signals collected over three years by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft. Their results suggest that a 12-mile-wide (20 kilometers) reservoir lies below ice about a mile (1.5 kilometers) thick in an area close to the planet’s south pole.

They spent at least two years examining the data to make sure they’d detected water, not ice or another substance.

“I really have no other explanation,” said astrophysicist Roberto Orosei of Italy’s National Institute of Astrophysics in Bologna and lead author of the study.

Mars is very cold, but the water might have been kept from freezing by dissolved salts. It’s the same as when you put salt on a road, said Kirsten Siebach, a planetary geologist at Rice University who wasn’t part of the study.

“This water would be extremely cold, right at the point where it’s about to freeze. And it would be salty. Those are not ideal conditions for life to form,” Siebach said.

Still, she said, there are microbes on Earth that have been able to adapt to environments like that.

Orosei said, “It’s tempting to think that this is the first candidate place where life could persist” on Mars.

He suspects Mars may contain other hidden bodies of water, waiting to be discovered.

Our planetary neighbor has a popular target for exploration, with rovers on its surface and other probes examining the planet from orbit. In May, NASA launched another spacecraft, the InSight Mars lander, that will dig under the surface after it reaches a flat plain just north of the Martian equator in November.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaqFKXklWsU
 

Toroid

Founding Member
Mars won't be this close to Earth for another 269 years.
Mars Is At Its Closest to Earth Since 2003 Today! It Won't Be Closer Until 2287
Early this morning, Mars made its closest approach to Earth since 2003 — but if you missed it, the Red Planet is still a magnificent sight to see in the night sky. Humanity will have to wait 269 years for Mars to get much closer, NASA says.

At 3:50 a.m. EDT (0750 GMT), Mars reached the closest point to Earth in its orbit. The Red Planet hadn't been that close to Earth since August 2003. (And when this last approach occurred, it was the first time in 60,000 years that Mars had come so close.) This occurrence follows last week's Mars event: On Friday (July 27), the Red Planet reached opposition with the sun and remained at its brightest in the night sky through Monday night and early today (July 31).

According to NASA, Mars was 35.8 million miles (57.6 million kilometers) from Earth at its closest point this morning. In August 2003, Mars was a smidge closer: 34.6 million miles (55.6 million km). Mars won't be that close to Earth until 2287, according to a NASA update. Mars will reach opposition again before then. In October 2020, the Red Planet will reach opposition and will be 38.6 million miles (62.1 million km) from Earth, according to NASA's update.

You can see Mars tonight by looking to the southwestern sky. Weather permitting, Mars will be visible low on the southwestern horizon, with the moon shining to the upper left. Saturn will also be visible, as shown in the map below.

If you missed it, don't believe any crazy stories you may hear about its apparent size. Mars wasn't as big as the moon in the night sky — not even close; that story is a hoax that somehow pops up every single year. In reality, at Mars' closest approach, the moon still appeared 75 times larger than the Red Planet, while Mars appeared as an extremely bright, star-like object that was visible for much of the night. But if you slept through the whole event, don't worry! Mars will still be especially bright and close tonight, so make sure to look up!

You can even look back at some of the views from Mars' closest point in a webcast that filmed the event live from the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
 

Toroid

Founding Member

wwkirk

Divine
Mars missions may be all-female to avoid astronauts having sex during 1.5-year journey
1519454-mars-1506702002-455-640x480.jpg

Astronauts Nicole Aunapu Mann, Anne McClain, Jessica Meir, and Christina Hammock Koch, photographed at Nasa's Johnson Space Centre in Houston. PHOTO: Nasa/File
 

nivek

As Above So Below
or an all male crew.

Makes sense at least for the time being, it's going to be a while before anyone goes to mars so there's plenty of time to develop proper fitting and efficient suits...

I think we will have a means to get water from that planet once we are able to send humans there, judging by recent news of possible underground water sources, but the question will be whether it's drinkable or not...

...
 

Toroid

Founding Member
Makes sense at least for the time being, it's going to be a while before anyone goes to mars so there's plenty of time to develop proper fitting and efficient suits...

I think we will have a means to get water from that planet once we are able to send humans there, judging by recent news of possible underground water sources, but the question will be whether it's drinkable or not...

...
In the 'Lost Book of Enki' it states the Nibiruans/Annunaki would fill their ships that were powered by water on Mars because the escape velocity was lower.
The Lost Book of Enki
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Nothing to see here, just an ordinary traffic light.................on Mars...:Whistle:

D5Lor4HW0AIxSA1.jpeg
 
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