Rounded Pebbles On MARS Reveal Past Flowing Water

Rounded Pebbles On MARS Reveal Past Flowing Water

bigstory.ap.org

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A fresh analysis by NASA's Curiosity rover confirms a stream once ran through Gale Crater on Mars.

During a pit stop last year, Curiosity came upon hundreds of smooth, round pebbles that look strikingly similar to deposits in river banks on Earth.

Scientists believe the rover rolled onto an ancient streambed, but needed to study the stones in more detail. So Curiosity snapped high-resolution pictures and fired its laser at several pebbles to analyze the chemical makeup.

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Continued:

Researchers say the roundness of the stones was shaped by a fast-flowing stream that probably was ankle to waist-deep. Curiosity landed in the crater near the equator last summer.

The analysis appears in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

In other words - "New Analysis By NASA's Curiosity Rover Confirms A Stream Once Ran Through Crater On Mars".

That's big news - I'm surprised it's not being trumpeted out more.

What we have here is past evidence of water and therefore, past evidence of "life".

This has massive implications. Does this mean that we "humans" are actually "Martians" (i.e. descended from Mars life, whether microscopic or otherwise)? Or what? It's certainly very interesting.

It'll be a stretch to attempt to claim that very advanced life existed on Mars, but we really don't know much yet (at least that's the official story).

Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if NASA had already discovered life on Mars (indeed, current living life), but they're just slowly preparing us by announcing "discoveries" such as the above.

Interesting, don't you think?

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reply to post by HomoSapiensSapiens


Sorry but another conspiracy theorist already beat you to this theory

reply to post by Tlexlapoca


What are you talking about?

There have been lots of theories about life on Earth and I certainly didn't profess to have offered anything new. Indeed, I was only re-questioning and putting such questions forward again.

Nowhere in the posts above did I state to have offered anything novel or revolutionary. This news story has just broke today.

Indeed, it really isn't only conspiracy theorists that have proposed the Life on Mars theories or whatever. Top scientists - indeed, even many current NASA! - have suggested that there could have been life on Mars, even if ancient. So, it's quite popular - and more and more proof is arising. I'm talking about scientifically verified proof - not photographs and spurious "evidence" from conspiracy theorists. This is real science here.

reply to post by HomoSapiensSapiens


LOL no i meant that i believe someone already posted a thread like this a few months ago, because i was read the thing a few months back ,

but...now that i think of it i shouldnt have said anything

reply to post by Tlexlapoca


Oh, I see. My mistake.

No - this seems to be another "discovery"; it's just breaking now across the media.

reply to post by HomoSapiensSapiens

During a pit stop last year, Curiosity came upon hundreds of smooth, round pebbles that look strikingly similar to deposits in river banks on Earth.

yes this is what i remember reading last year, and someone on here showed images of these smooth rocks and explained how smooth rocks like these can only be formed by rivers because the rocks smash eachother and the rocks constantly scrape each other during the moving waters thus creating a smooth surfaced rock. Just saying thats what i remember reading

reply to post by HomoSapiensSapiens


The big news is that they are more confident in their original guess of why the rounded pebbles were there.

"Our analysis of the amount of rounding of the pebbles provided further information," said Sanjeev Gupta of Imperial College, London, a co-author of the new report. "The rounding indicates sustained flow. It occurs as pebbles hit each other multiple times. This wasn't a one-off flow. It was sustained, certainly more than weeks or months, though we can't say exactly how long."

The stream carried the gravels at least a few miles, or kilometers, the researchers estimated.

NASA Article

What we have here is past evidence of water and therefore, past evidence of "life".

Well... evidence of conditions conducive for life anyway. Flowing water is a good place to start.

Did anyone ever doubt it? There are massive canyons on Mars.

What is actually in place right now with MSL Curiosity is that the lab is only verifing what sceintists already knew before they sent it to Mars.
What I don't understand is why send the rover to Mars only for verifing what they already knew?
They should've sent microscope along all that scientific equipment to try to catch life (bugs) moving under it.
IMO Curiosity already fulfilled it's mission, that is that Mars was indeed a place to host life in the past.

Past and present water on Mars has been known about for quite some time now , here's a picture of water flows on Mars that occur today around Martian spring time .

"The best explanation for these observations so far is the flow of briny water," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson. McEwen is part of a team that is working with the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and lead author of a report about the recurring flows published in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.
www.ibtimes.com...

reply to post by gortex

OK Gortex, this is puzzling, tragic and comic all in one.
So, to make this completely clear, they KNEW THAT THE WATER FLOWS on other planet, and to send the rover to those areas, they sent it to the others instead.
As much as I'm struggling not to see conspiracy here, lo and behold, there it is.

rounded pebbles, i.e. river-rock.... and evidence of water flows, erosion Do Not Prove that Mars had It's own terrestrial water...
all these items could very well have been the result of half of Mars being Inundated with oceans/volumes of water as the end result of the Exploding Planet Hypothesis[... when the early solar system Planet 'Vulcan' outgassed and exploded causing Its'Moon' aka as Mars to get flooded as a result


the Earth too was a recipient of the Exploding Planets' (a water world) oceans of water ! Althyough to a very lesser degree


the Mars finds do-not suggest it had a early Earth atmosphere or ecology.... all that stuff 'rained-down' on Mars
from a Host Planet that is now a asteroid belt...IMHO

sorry Mod for all the edits...

reply to post by zilebeliveunknown


I think they chose Gale Crater because it gives them the chance to look at the past geology (Marology?) of Mars to see if it could of supported life in the past due to the fact its a big hole in the ground , it just so happens that they landed on an ancient riverbed and that gives even more opportunity to find the stuff needed for life ... which they have

I have no doubt that life did exist in Mars's past and to some extent it probably still does , the pictures of water flows are to me just icing on the cake

"We have found a habitable environment," said John Grotzinger, project scientist for the Curiosity mission. "The water that was here was so benign and supportive of life that if a human had been on the planet back then, they could drink it."
Long ago, Mars had the conditions and ingredients to support life.

It's a good story.
Validation of what was presumed earlier when Curiosity first imaged the pebbles.
We knew there was water. We know there is water now.
What we weren't sure about is was there flowing water that could exist long enough to erode pebbles into rounded shapes. If there was, it may have existed long enough to allow for the formation of life. Depending on the kind of flow, some rocks can be rounded into submission in a very short time. think about Glacial Dams on Earth..when they break, it's a HUGE slurry of rocks, sand, and other abrasives. those can get rounded in mere weeks.

Additionally, a lot of the other current outflows, are mere puffs of water, or dry ice. Some of which behave a little like pyroclastic flows from volcanoes. where the material rides down a hill with gasses reducing the friction. Instead of Rocks and hot gasses, we have ice that is sublimating vapor, as it works it's way down crater walls.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
It's a good story.
Validation of what was presumed earlier when Curiosity first imaged the pebbles.
We knew there was water. We know there is water now.
What we weren't sure about is was there flowing water that could exist long enough to erode pebbles into rounded shapes. If there was, it may have existed long enough to allow for the formation of life. Depending on the kind of flow, some rocks can be rounded into submission in a very short time. think about Glacial Dams on Earth..when they break, it's a HUGE slurry of rocks, sand, and other abrasives. those can get rounded in mere weeks.

Additionally, a lot of the other current outflows, are mere puffs of water, or dry ice. Some of which behave a little like pyroclastic flows from volcanoes. where the material rides down a hill with gasses reducing the friction. Instead of Rocks and hot gasses, we have ice that is sublimating vapor, as it works it's way down crater walls.

Yes, but what is the connection directly? surely it's not just the roundness of the pebbles in a place where wind erosion is known to exist. Those pebbles could have a consistency of a Cuttlefish if they have no water in them, and just be blown around the planet.

reply to post by smurfy


That could be true too. Though wind erosion might only polish one side of a stone. Unless the atmosphere was thick and the winds were strong. It's going to also depend on what the stones are embedded in. There could be plenty of water altered particles cementing them together into a conglomerate. Hard to say really. But we can find out with this Rover

Mars was in the habitable zone and I would stake a claim and there was life on it at some point.

We are made from the stars and if we existed here, then we probably existed on Mars first, speculation of course

My personal beleif has always been that we originated from Mars.

1) We've all read the evidence of ancient civilastions and structures on the sea floor indicating the sea level was once alot shallower than now. Some might argue an Ice Age lowered those sea levels - I argue that they were naturally lower already.

2) The Great Flood.....was actually the transfer of water from Mars to Earth by "God" if thats what you want to call it.

Why?

Buggered if I know....just trying to tie in theories and beleifs.

The water from Mars went somewhere.
The water from the great flood came from somewhere.

Civilsations got flooded somehow in the past.

?

So how far would a sharp edged rock have to travel down a stream or river to become a rounded, smooth pebble?
The type of rock would make a big difference of course, what type of rock are the pebbles?
If all the pebbles were washed down a river, should there be a pile of them at the end of the river, and none left at the beginning or middle section?
The river or stream would have to be turbulent, as once it becomes laminar, there is no movement of rocks at the bottom of the water course, so no erosion, and no rounding.
The mechanics, IMO, do not add up.