!!!Mars Blue Sky & Water!!!

Does anyone else find that the rover looks really poorly built?
If you zoom in on the ´joystick´ type thing on the solar panels (if that is what they are) - you can see that it´s base is attached to the panel with 4 hex-screws. But it is attached at a slight angle to the panel. Is there a reason for this? Also, some of the ducts or cables look very sloppily attached and routed, like it was slapped together in someone´s shed.

Originally posted by ArMaP
It's not oxygen that makes the sky blue, it's the fact that the atmosphere is dense enough for scattering the light.
According to this, if a planet has a thinner atmosphere it should have less scattering, but it will still have some, making the sky a lighter blue.
All of this if I am not wrong, this is the idea I have about it, but I may be slightly wrong.

But if you might be 'slightly wrong' then would it not be wise to find out before making statements (even if you add a disclaimer? )

Why is the Sky Blue?

Why is the sky blue? Parents and teachers have traditionally made up lots of reasonable explanations. Adults are supposed to know the answers to such simple questions, right? Unfortunately, all of the explanations that I have ever heard are at least partly incorrect.

The correct answer is: Only because of a remarkable coincidence.

The Earth's atmosphere is primarily made of Oxygen and Nitrogen. It happens that both these are made up of atoms of about the same size. It also turns out to be true that EVERYTHING has lots of empty space between and around the atoms that it is made of.

Our Sun produces light which is actually a mixture of light of a lot of colors (called a spectrum, another subject). You can prove this with a prism, which separates the colors of what we normally call white light or sunlight. These various colors are actually just different sizes (wavelengths or frequencies) of waves of radiation (light). Our eyes only recognize the total of all this light, and so it appears to us to be a bright yellow, almost white color.

It turns out that RED light in the sunlight is the lowest frequency and therefore is the biggest wave (yet another subject!). These big waves happen to be around twice as big as the size of the waves of blue and violet light also in the sunlight. When these BIG waves pass through the earth's atmosphere (or any other collection of oxygen and nitrogen molecules) they are not affected very much by the relatively SMALL atoms of Oxygen and Nitrogen; so most RED light continues straight on through. (They are able to go around the atoms more than bumping into them.)

The BLUE (and violet) light in the sunlight is the highest frequency (of what we can see) and therefore has the littlest waves. These smaller waves happen to be around half the size of the red waves just discussed. When these SMALL waves of blue light pass through the earth's atmosphere, many of them eventually "crash into" the relatively LARGE atoms of Oxygen and Nitrogen. They tend to "bounce off" (are reflected or SCATTERED) and then they go all directions including sideways and down toward us.

A more scientific way of saying this is to say that the Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms are of a size that has a "natural vibration rate" (called frequency) that is closer to the rates of vibration of BLUE light. So the blue light can cause those atoms to start vibrating. The vibrating atoms then give off blue light when they stop vibrating, and that new blue light can go in any direction. (It's a little more complicated than that, but the general idea is correct.)

The REALLY complete explanation of this is called the Rayleigh Theory of Scattering!

As sunlight is passing through the atmosphere horizontally above you, the RED light tends to go straight through, while the BLUE light tends to get bounced around (what is called "scattered") as described above. When you look up at open sky, you see this scattered light which is mostly BLUE.

Please notice that I keep saying things like "usually", "mostly", "tends",and not "always". Remember that there is a LOT of empty space between the atoms in the air. Some blue light CAN make it through a good distance of air. But, the farther that the light has to pass through air keeps making it more and more likely that the blue light will be scattered while a good amount of the red light will continue on through.

mb-soft.com...


So it appears that we do indeed need Oxygen and Nitrogen to give us a BLUE SKY....



In the question section we get this...

So it's only because Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms just happen to be a size comparable to the size of some of the waves of visible light, that the sky is blue! Neat, huh?

Q A question: If Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms happened to be a lot SMALLER, what color would the sky be?

(Answer: Nearly BLACK, while the Sun would look whiter than it does and there would be almost no dawn or dusk- it would just suddenly become day or night) The Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms would not be vibrated by any of the visible light, so nearly all would pass through, with very little being scattered by the sky. It would be likely that bright stars could be seen during the day!

Q Another question: If Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms happened to be a LOT BIGGER, what color would the sky be?

(Answer: Nearly BLACK again, with the Sun again seeming whiter than now.) The Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms would again not be vibrated by the various colors of the visible light, so again, all would pass through.

The above was prepared by C Johnson, Physicist, Physics Degree from Univ of Chicago...

Now according to Viking... Mars atmosphere is this...
95.32% carbon dioxide
2.7% nitrogen
1.6% argon
0.13% oxygen
0.07% carbon monoxide
0.03% water vapor

Yet Viking shows us blue skies....

Paul Schlyter writes:

The Earth's sky is blue because the air molecules (largely nitrogen and oxygen) are much smaller than the wavelength of light. Thus, if the atmosphere of another planet is composed of a transparent gas or gases whose molecules are much smaller than the wavelength of light, we would, in general, also expect the sky on that planet to have a blue color. If you want another color of the sky, you need bigger particles in the air. You need something bigger than molecules in the air---dust.

www.faqs.org...

But it seems many people are confused about this issue

Yahoo answers chose THIS

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
the sky is blue because the color is reflected off of the ocean, im not sure why we cant see stars in the daytime, good question!

answers.yahoo.com...

Man are we in trouble Here is a couple more answers (all the CORRECT answers were ignored )

"The short answer is, the sky is blue because that's the color of the atmosphere."

"THE JACK POT ANSWER IS REFRACTION all other colors
pass through the screening of the atmosphere where as blue is refracted so the sky looks blue "


My favorite...

"1 - we wanted a red sky, but Mars had already picked it.
2 - they turn the stars off in the daytime to save energy."

Doomed I say the future of Earth hangs in the balance...
:shk:

reply to post by Psychopump
Because of the lighter gravity the overall strength of the rover can be about 1/3 less than what you would expect in a similar vehicle on earth. I think that that other guy meant lichens right? Yes gravity would act on a pool of water a bit differently on Mars again because of the gravity. We know that there is wind there and could cause the ripples.
However I think that maybe people are missing the really big picture here, supposedly Mars is too cold to have liquid water on its surface, and if that is what we are seeing, then we are being completely deceived as to the very nature of the planet. If there is liquid water on the surface of Mars then that means the ambient temperature is well within(although still pretty cold perhaps) the temperature requirements for humans. If this picture really shows liquid water in that large of a volume then this is a VERY BIG DEAL. Also correct me if I'm wrong here but doesnt that also mean that the atmospheric pressure is also similar, because water would rapidly vaporize, as in a vacuum?



[edit on 30-7-2008 by spookjr]

NEWS FLASH!!!

VIKING LANDER FOUND!!!

Carl Sagan found the Viking Lander abandoned in Death Valley, in the Neveda Test site...

Like any other tourist he had a photo taken with him beside the Lander...

Perhaps THIS is why those Viking photos look so much like Nevada with those blue skies... because IT IS NEVADA

And best of all...its from a NASA source



Now I had already shown that we found Pathfinder here in Nevada...



Now I just have to hunt down those pesky ROVERS... I'm sure they are out here somewhere too...


I mean they want us to believe those flimsy things have been running around in extreme conditions on Mars for over FIVE YEARS without needing service? With NASA's track record?

Yup they will turn up somewhere out here... just need to keep hunting...


OH and here is how to add that yukky Martian sky...







Well at least now we have a color comparison to work with

reply to post by zorgon
Pretty sure those are mock-ups used for testing, I very seriously doubt Carl Sagan would have stood by and perpetuate an obvious fraud.

Originally posted by spookjr I very seriously doubt Carl Sagan would have stood by and perpetuate an obvious fraud.

What the guy who wanted to Nuke the Moon to see if there was any organic matter? That Carl Sagan?

The Carl Sagan that was showing NASA anomalies that were obvious fake before Hoagland? That Carl Sagan?



Your 'pretty sure' and 'very seriously doubt'...

but you don't KNOW

reply to post by zorgon


Well I'll be Hornswaggled!!! Just drove around a corner and look what I found...

That missing Surveyor... still in pretty good shape...

Nevada is such an interesting place Area 51, A Bomb craters everywhere... Yucca Mountain tunnels... Alien motels... and all these NASA 'spacecraft just hanging around the test site...

Underground submarine bases, scuba diving under Death Valley to see rare fish...




I am going to find those darn Rovers..... they just have to be out here somewhere...




[edit on 30-7-2008 by zorgon]

I love this picture. Martian landscape looks alot like earth.



I will have to have a good hunt for the origional.

Sky looks pretty.

reply to post by zorgon
Yup , THAT Carl Sagan. What obvious fakes are you refering to? I was not aware of that issue. Could very well be that I need to revise my high opinion of this guy. Always want to expand the mind you know.

Originally posted by zorgon
reply to [url=http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread324816/pg20#fo NA

Underground submarine bases, scuba diving under Death Valley to see rare fish...
Again, not aware of that, sounds interesting, do tell...

I am going to find those darn Rovers..... they just have to be out here somewhere...

[edit on 30-7-2008 by zorgon]

[edit on 30-7-2008 by spookjr]