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Nasa scientists find evidence of flowing water on Mars


Researchers say discovery of stains from summertime flows down cliffs and crater walls increases chance of finding life on red planet



Satellite images have identified narrow streaks that appear on slopes during warm seasons, lengthen, and then fade when conditions become cooler. Photograph: Nasa/JPL/University of Arizona/PA
Ian Sample Science editor

@iansample
Tuesday 29 September 2015 01.00 AESTLast modified on Tuesday 29 September 201503.01 AEST


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Liquid water runs down canyons and crater walls over the summer months onMars, according to researchers who say the discovery raises the chances of being home to some form of life.

The trickles leave long, dark stains on the Martian terrain that can reach hundreds of metres downhill in the warmer months, before they dry up in the autumn as surface temperatures drop.

Images taken from the Mars orbit show cliffs, and the steep walls of valleys and craters, streaked with summertime flows that in the most active spots combine to form intricate fan-like patterns.

Scientists are unsure where the water comes from, but it may rise up from underground ice or salty aquifers, or condense out of the thin Martian atmosphere.

“There is liquid water today on the surface of Mars,” Michael Meyer, the lead scientist on Nasa’s Mars exploration programme, told the Guardian. “Because of this, we suspect that it is at least possible to have a habitable environment today.”

The water flows could point Nasa and other space agencies towards the most promising sites to find life on Mars, and to landing spots for future human missions where water can be collected from a natural supply.

Some of the earliest missions to Mars revealed a planet with a watery past. Pictures beamed back to Earth in the 1970s showed a surface crossed by dried-up rivers and plains once submerged beneath vast ancient lakes. Earlier this year, Nasa unveiled evidence of an ocean that might have covered half of the planet’s northern hemisphere in the distant past.



Dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae emanate out of the walls of Garni crater on Mars. Photograph: Nasa/AFP/Getty Images
But occasionally, Mars probes have found hints that the planet might still be wet. Nearly a decade ago, Nasa’s Mars Global Surveyor took pictures of what appeared to be water bursting through a gully wall and flowing around boulders and other rocky debris. In 2011, the high-resolution camera on Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured what looked like little streams flowing down crater walls from late spring to early autumn. Not wanting to assume too much, mission scientists named the flows “recurring slope lineae” or RSL.

Researchers have now turned to another instrument on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to analyse the chemistry of the mysterious RSL flows.Lujendra Ojha, of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and his colleagues used a spectrometer on the MRO to look at infrared light reflected off steep rocky walls when the dark streaks had just begun to appear, and when they had grown to full length at the end of the Martian summer.

Writing in the journal Nature Geosciences, the team describes how it found infra-red signatures for hydrated salts when the dark flows were present, but none before they had grown. The hydrated salts – a mix of chlorates and perchlorates – are a smoking gun for the presence of water at all four sites inspected: the Hale, Palikir and Horowitz craters, and a large canyon called Coprates Chasma.

“These may be the best places to search for extant life near the surface of Mars,” said Alfred McEwen, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona and senior author on the study. “While it would be very important to find evidence of ancient life, it would be difficult to understand the biology. Current life would be much more informative.”

The flows only appear when the surface of Mars rises above -23C. The water can run in such frigid conditions because the salts lower the freezing point of water, keeping it liquid far below 0C.

“The mystery has been, what is permitting this flow? Presumably water, but until now, there has been no spectral signature,” Meyer said. “From this, we conclude that the RSL are generated by water interacting with perchlorates, forming a brine that flows downhill.”



These channels, which are between 1 metre and 10 metres wide, are on a scarp in the Hellas impact basin. Photograph: Nasa/Reuters
John Bridges, a professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester, said the study was fascinating, but might throw up some fresh concerns for space agencies. The flows could be used to find water sources on Mars, making them prime spots to hunt for life, and to land future human missions. But agencies were required to do their utmost to avoid contaminating other planets with microbes from Earth, making wet areas the most difficult to visit. “This will give them lots to think about,” he said.

For now, researchers are focused on learning where the water comes from. Porous rocks under the Martian surface might hold frozen water that melts in the summer months and seeps up to the surface.

Another possibility is that highly concentrated saline aquifers are dotted around beneath the surface, not as pools of water, but as saturated volumes of gritty rock. These could cause flows in some areas, but cannot easily explain water seeping down from the top of crater walls.

A third possibility, and one favoured by McEwen, is that salts on the Martian surface absorb water from the atmosphere until they have enough to run downhill. The process, known as deliquescence, is seen in the Atacama desert, where the resulting damp patches are the only known place for microbes to live.

“It’s a fascinating piece of work,” Bridges said. “Our view of Mars is changing, and we’ll be discussing this for a long time to come.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/28/nasa-scientists-find-evidence-flowing-water-mars


Woah! Quite a discovery. Seriously amazed at this. Imagine going to Mars. Would be quite the experience to do so I imagine.
 
Aric @PhatEmoKid
Water on Mars....... DON'T DRINK THE WATER. DON'T EVEN TOUCH IT. NOT ONE DROP. #DoctorWho #WaterOnMars http://t.co/eD4eee9MN8 View on Twitter
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Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/entertainme...kind-doctor-who-fans-warn#Ue1cxFXzMTcujL1S.99
 
GROOVER said:
Omg I saw this news item earlier and was like wtf :wtf:

Feck and I just brought some vegemite and crumpets this morning. Should I take the vegemite back?

This has to be a gee up :p
Click to expand...

Depends how you feel about "feeling superior to Aboriginals by literally eating their f*****g skin in a jar.’
(what the crazy girl claims)
 
Meglos said:
Depends how you feel about "feeling superior to Aboriginals by literally eating their f*****g skin in a jar.’
(what the crazy girl claims)
Click to expand...
I can't feel superior (I have coffee coloured skin).

I really don't know if this girl is serious or trying to be a media attention seeking twat?
 
GROOVER said:
I can't feel superior (I have coffee coloured skin).

I really don't know if this girl is serious or trying to be a media attention seeking twat?
Click to expand...

It's so ridiculous, I hope for her sake it's the latter. She's going to cop a lot of flak either way.
 
As USA citizens will never stop killing each other
& they will not, they do not even care that babies died in one, so no hope they will EVER change
they really ought to consider changing how they report and react to their everyday massacres.
Stop giving killers CELEBRITY, do not publish photos or their names, call them a number

Americans really like killing, in every way = judges, juries, cops, hospitals, they are just kill crazy people - and everyone else avoid, theatres, malls, and schools if touristing.
 
I haven't followed the whole Adam Goodes saga being from a non-AFL state like Queensland but racist reactions here make me feel physically ill

Adam Goodes Signs With David Jones, Immediately Cops Racist Abuse
“You don’t see many Aboriginals shopping at David Jones.”

posted on Oct. 19, 2015, at 2:35 p.m.

Allan Clarke
BuzzFeed News Reporter, Australia
Tweet
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Less than a month after retiring from the AFL at the end of a torrid season full of racial controversy, two-time Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes has been been flooded with abusive messages after he was announced as the new face of a David Jones campaign.

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David Jones.
Goodes appears in David Jones’ new It’s In You campaign alongside five other well-known Australians.

youtube.com
“I am committed to using my name to advocate the things that are important to me, especially education, to create a better Australia for all Australians and I believe this role will give me the opportunity to do this,” Goodes said as his new position was announced over the weekend.

But it was the former AFL superstar who was singled out for abuse.

Hundreds of comments flooded David Jones’ Facebook page declaring they would never shop at the department store again. Many of them writing “boo” - a reference to the booing Goodes constantly received on the field - while others called him a monkey.

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enhanced-16363-1445225167-1.png


enhanced-10811-1445225131-1.png


enhanced-29929-1445225194-1.png


enhanced-10811-1445225399-8.png


enhanced-14087-1445225439-1.png


enhanced-16941-1445225370-1.png


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Goodes has endured years of racial abuse from spectators. In 2013 a 13-year-old girl famously called him a monkey.

anigif_optimized-9587-1445224324-4.gif

David Jones
In May this year, the Australian of the Year performed an Aboriginal war dance after kicking a goal. That moment ignited fierce debate from conservative commentators, who called it confronting.

In July, Goodes was the subject of so much booing during a game with the West Coast Eagles that he left the game indefinitely.

Two people were evicted from the ground, one of them telling Goode’s to “go back to the zoo”.

“I just needed to be around people who really understood how it felt to be in that position,” Goodes told University of Sydney student newspaper Honi Soit last week.

“For me, I just needed that support from those people so, it wasn’t until the day after that West Coast Eagle’s game that it really hit me, and I was really down and out and I didn’t want to go training on Monday,” Goodes said.

Goodes returned for two more games before retiring at the end of the 2015 season.

David Jones has since reaffirmed their commitment to Goodes as brand ambassador.

anigif_optimized-18168-1445226140-3.gif

Sydney Swans.
“David Jones is proud to have Adam Goodes, a powerful and inspirational Australian, join its family of ambassadors,” the spokeswoman said,” a spokesperson for the store told Fairfax Media.

Goodes is currently overseas and will not be back in Australia until early next year.
 
delcan said:
I haven't followed the whole Adam Goodes saga being from a non-AFL state like Queensland but racist reactions here make me feel physically ill

Adam Goodes Signs With David Jones, Immediately Cops Racist Abuse
“You don’t see many Aboriginals shopping at David Jones.”

posted on Oct. 19, 2015, at 2:35 p.m.

Allan Clarke
BuzzFeed News Reporter, Australia
Tweet
Tumblr

Less than a month after retiring from the AFL at the end of a torrid season full of racial controversy, two-time Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes has been been flooded with abusive messages after he was announced as the new face of a David Jones campaign.

enhanced-2435-1445222565-1.png

David Jones.
Goodes appears in David Jones’ new It’s In You campaign alongside five other well-known Australians.

youtube.com
“I am committed to using my name to advocate the things that are important to me, especially education, to create a better Australia for all Australians and I believe this role will give me the opportunity to do this,” Goodes said as his new position was announced over the weekend.

But it was the former AFL superstar who was singled out for abuse.

Hundreds of comments flooded David Jones’ Facebook page declaring they would never shop at the department store again. Many of them writing “boo” - a reference to the booing Goodes constantly received on the field - while others called him a monkey.

enhanced-28743-1445225081-9.png


enhanced-24463-1445225103-1.png


enhanced-16363-1445225167-1.png


enhanced-10811-1445225131-1.png


enhanced-29929-1445225194-1.png


enhanced-10811-1445225399-8.png


enhanced-14087-1445225439-1.png


enhanced-16941-1445225370-1.png


enhanced-28436-1445225246-6.png

Goodes has endured years of racial abuse from spectators. In 2013 a 13-year-old girl famously called him a monkey.

anigif_optimized-9587-1445224324-4.gif

David Jones
In May this year, the Australian of the Year performed an Aboriginal war dance after kicking a goal. That moment ignited fierce debate from conservative commentators, who called it confronting.

In July, Goodes was the subject of so much booing during a game with the West Coast Eagles that he left the game indefinitely.

Two people were evicted from the ground, one of them telling Goode’s to “go back to the zoo”.

“I just needed to be around people who really understood how it felt to be in that position,” Goodes told University of Sydney student newspaper Honi Soit last week.

“For me, I just needed that support from those people so, it wasn’t until the day after that West Coast Eagle’s game that it really hit me, and I was really down and out and I didn’t want to go training on Monday,” Goodes said.

Goodes returned for two more games before retiring at the end of the 2015 season.

David Jones has since reaffirmed their commitment to Goodes as brand ambassador.

anigif_optimized-18168-1445226140-3.gif

Sydney Swans.
“David Jones is proud to have Adam Goodes, a powerful and inspirational Australian, join its family of ambassadors,” the spokeswoman said,” a spokesperson for the store told Fairfax Media.

Goodes is currently overseas and will not be back in Australia until early next year.
Click to expand...

Just disgusting but sadly not surprising. This whole saga is just blatant racism. Also the fact that someone's used a screencap from Black Comedy to be racist is hilarious.

Going cushion shopping this weekend so will have to stop by DJs.
 
Consuela said:
Just disgusting but sadly not surprising. This whole saga is just blatant racism. Also the fact that someone's used a screencap from Black Comedy to be racist is hilarious.

Going cushion shopping this weekend so will have to stop by DJs.
Click to expand...

Good on DJ's. I just don't get where the racism comes from in the younger generation. My parents had me when they were 40 - I'm 32 now, and I call them out every time they are being racist and I've done so for about 15 years. I don't get where the hatred came from - my parents have beautiful Indigenous friends in their life, I guess they can't see it
 
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