LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19, 2008
Mars Find Suggests Life Once Possible
Orbiter Spots Carbonate In Exposed Rock, Evidence Parts Of Planet May Have Been Hospitable To Life
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A color composite image based on infrared spectral information of a 12-mile-wide area on Mars shows evidence of carbonate minerals present in heavily eroded terrain west of a small canyon in the Nili Fossae region. Carbonate, which is indicative of a wet and non-acidic history, appears green in patches of the exposed rock. (NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/Brown U.)
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The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been beaming images back to Earth since it arrived at the Red Planet in March 2006. (AP)
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Photo Essay Phoenix Arrives On Mars NASA's mission to study water under the Martian surface off to solid start.
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Photo Essay Mars Exploration Rovers NASA's Opportunity and Spirit rovers beam back images from Mars.
Previous missions detected carbonate mineral in trace amounts in Martian dust. But earlier this year, the Phoenix lander discovered small amounts of carbonate in soil near its arctic landing site.
The latest find was the first time the mineral has been observed in rock outcrops on the red planet.
Carbonate minerals form in the presence of water. Their presence in bedrock in Nili Fossae, a region of valleys that have cut into the planet's ancient crust, suggests the area was not as harsh as other places on Mars.
The region "would have really been a clement, benign environment for early Martian life," said mission scientist Bethany Ehlmann of Brown University.
Scientists analyzed thousands of images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter but only found evidence of carbonate in Nili Fossae.
The results were presented Thursday at an American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco and will appear Friday in the journal Science.
Scientists planning the next Mars landing - the Mars Science Laboratory - initially considered Nili Fossae as a potential landing site, but it did not make the final cut.
The launch of the Mars Science Lab has since been delayed two years to 2011.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- I''m Christian, but do not believe the Bible is a scientific text book. If it were so, then you must belive in a geocentric universe. The Bible tells us in Psalms 93:1 "the world also is established, that it cannot be moved" and 1.Chronicles 16:30 "Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved", etc. At the time the only perspective of our universe was from the earthly point of view. I.e. The sun rising and the sun setting. Galileo was credited with discovering that the earth and our solar system revolved around the sun and was nearly excommunicated. Though there are people today who believe the earth is the center of the universe. It would be interesting to calculate the rotational speed of a star billions of light years away revolving around the earth once a day. And then there''s the definition of a year. Which cannot be the same as we think of it if geocentricity were true.
I accept what science tells us about our natural world. I couldn''t be an electrical engineer if I didn''t. God is supernatural and therefore is outside the bounds of science. Meaning science cannot prove, disprove, or even test for supernatural events. You have to have faith or just believe in them. - Reply to this comment
- tucson: I agree that the Bible is a piece of social engineering. It is better at it than the NYT, CBS, Wash Post, etc. There is also nothing in the Bible about the quadratic equation, so what!
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- In order to believe the Bible, you have to deny thousands of findings that are apparent to your own eyes (if you were only open-minded enough to see and smart enough to understand), and instead believe one book which was written by fourth century monks as a means of social engineering. One has to be insane to deny evidence in favor of myth. If the Bible is the infallable word of God, it first has to be infallible. So tell me, how exactly did two individuals create a population of humans? Did their children mate with each other? How did Noah''s ''two of every animal'' do it? Why did God want to make it appear that the dinosaurs lived for hundreds of millions of years before the first human? Is he just messing with us? I mean, at some point you just have to pull your head out and take the Bible with a grain of salt.
- Reply to this comment
- Once we ship Algore to Mars both planets will be better off.
- Reply to this comment
- Their was once life on Earth, but then they elected Obama!!!!
Posted by beentheir1 at 11:59 AM : Dec 19, 2008
Their was once life in the republican party.. but then they were dumb enough to nominate Amnesty Mccain that wanted to give amnesty to over 20 million illegals.. and then English speaking in this country would have become extinct! - Reply to this comment
- Kirk: Beam it up Sooty!! God, what am I saying, must be that Xythurian bonkoweed. I meant, beam ME up, SCOTTY!
::::::::::::::::BRRZZZING::::::::::::::::::::
Kirk: Mr Sulu! What are you doing to the ship''s konkooloo?
Sulu: But Kiptin, you gave the order to "beam it up Sooty"! At Last!! - Reply to this comment
- Scotty: I canna hold her Cap''n, she''s gonna blow!
Kirk: Well, forget about her and get back to the control panel Scotty! - Reply to this comment
- Maybe they could help us get back to our senses!
Posted by brannigon
They''re probably avoiding contact because of our lack of senses. - Reply to this comment
- How can this be?
The universe is only 7000 years old.
Ask any wingnut fundi. - Reply to this comment
- Posted by fedupman at 09:10 AM : Dec 19, 2008
Before you post do some research. The union wages are 27.81 Honda in Ohio pays 30.00 per hour. They unions are not to blame the management is.
Sorry but we are just not biting any more. You had your day with the lies now they are coming back to haunt you. - Reply to this comment
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
