NASA Mars Lander Sees Falling Snow, Soil Data Suggest Liquid Past

NASA Mars Lander Sees Falling Snow, Soil Data Suggest Liquid Past

www.nasa.gov

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil tests experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, processes that occur on Earth.

A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars, detected snow from clouds about 2.5 miles above the spacecraft's landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground.

"Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground."
Phoenix experiments also yielded clues pointing to calcium carbonate, the main composition of chalk, and particles that could be clay. Most carbonates and clays on Earth form only in the presence of liquid water.

"We are still collecting data and have lots of analysis ahead, but we are making good progress on the big questions we set out for ourselves," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

(visit the link for the full news article)

More exciting news from the Phoenix Lander. I wish the media would latch on more to the amazing findings this little dynamo keeps turning up. I think we are very close to a renaissance in scientific study of the Universe. We may live in troubled times, but the spirit of exploration is still alive and well.

www.nasa.gov
(visit the link for the full news article)

Hang on Im having a few problems understanding whats going on here. Could you please explain

1. What conditions are needed for there to be clouds on Mars?
2. How do Snow clouds form?
3. What is the rate of gravity that would allow for these snow flakes to fall from the sky?

Sorry Im just confused I was always told that Mars is a baron hot planet with water only existing as Ice.

Water ice was actually discovered on Mars around late June. Many scientists think this may be the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

Proof! Water Ice Found on Mars




[edit on 29-9-2008 by round_eyed_dog]

Originally posted by kcfusion
Hang on Im having a few problems understanding whats going on here. Could you please explain

1. What conditions are needed for there to be clouds on Mars?
2. How do Snow clouds form?
3. What is the rate of gravity that would allow for these snow flakes to fall from the sky?

Sorry Im just confused I was always told that Mars is a baron hot planet with water only existing as Ice.

1. Water vapor and low temperatures.

2. The same way water clouds form. Water vapor condenses out of the atmosphere. If the temperature is below freezing the condensate is ice.

3. Acceleration due to gravity on Mars = 3.8 m/s^2. In order for anything to fall it just has to be heavier than the amount of gas it displaces.

Mars is a very cold dry planet. Water has been found as ice and water vapor.

Here's a nice little video of the clouds of Mars:



[edit on 29-9-2008 by Phage]

reply to post by Phage


Hey phage excellent post as always. I was wondering, how comes you have such a large knowlege of planets, and space science(as i call it)

And is that photo you in your avatar, i wouldnt find it hard to believe that you are in the russian aerospace industry/ Military

[edit on 29-9-2008 by monkeybus]

reply to post by monkeybus


Thank you.

I know a little about a lot of different things. This helps me when I want to know more about something. It helps me know where to look for the answers. This is one of the things I like most about ATS. It helps me find new places to look for information.

No, that's not me. But his attitude is about right.

[edit on 29-9-2008 by Phage]

Also found this interesting. Though planned for three months, they're now entering their fifth month of collecting data and hope to activate a microphone to collect sounds!

NASA Phoenix mission

The Phoenix mission, originally planned for three months on Mars, now is in its fifth month. However, it faces a decline in solar energy that is expected to curtail and then end the lander's activities before the end of the year. Before power ceases, the Phoenix team will attempt to activate a microphone on the lander to possibly capture sounds on Mars.

Originally posted by monkeybus
reply to post by Phage
And is that photo you in your avatar, i wouldnt find it hard to believe that you are in the russian aerospace industry/ Military

isn't that John Lithgow? lol ...from "3rd Rock from the Sun"?

...and here's cnn's article on this topic:

www.cnn.com...

Hey, who better to have detecting snow, than a Canadian! lol.

Well, this concludes that precipitation does form on Mars. It's not just ground ice after all.

Assistant "What is that?"
Canadian "Snow."
Assistant "How can you tell?"
Canadian "I'm Canadian."

Originally posted by kcfusion
Sorry Im just confused I was always told that Mars is a baron hot planet with water only existing as Ice.

The HOT planet would be Venus... and if the planet is HOT Ice would have difficulty existing... I wonder who it was that always told you this...

They lied...

Hey Phage nice clouds... better than mine..



But I have FOG



Chasma Australe Fog
www.msss.com...

And I have a CYCLONE




Cyclone Captured by Viking 1 Orbiter

Why do you people believe anything nasa tells us?

I don't.

Apart from the really early stuff, all this is BS and there is life on Mars, the moon and probably every other planet out there.

Please wake up to the fact nasa is run by the nsa and nwo.



Z

The reason people beleive everything nasa says is because nasa is the only organization in America that is actively exploring space and publishing information about space. They might be lying about everything, but until the near-future, when space travel is readily available through private industry, we wont really know what's out there.

star and flag!
its nice to 'get away' from the worries of today and see stuff like this..even tho I'm of the persuasion of the above posters...

The sounds on mars would be really cool!! Can't imagine it would be much besides wind noise, but just the thought of 'hearing' anything from another planet is pretty exciting!

Related:

As the season moves to winter, the Phoenix will eventually be encased in a tomb of carbon dioxide ice. Mission managers said that after the spacecraft thaws out when spring returns, they will attempt to invoke its “Lazarus mode,” but they doubted the spacecraft would revive.

Mr. Goldstein said the extreme cold would make electronic components brittle and prone to shattering. “The vehicle will probably not survive that,” he said.

www.nytimes.com...

Originally posted by watchZEITGEISTnow
all this is BS and there is life on Mars, the moon and probably every other planet out there.

Well that may be true... but I fail to understand how showing snow, water in the soil and clouds on Mars hurts the cause for life on Mars...

In the OLD DAYS NASA told us it was dry and lifeless, with little atmosphere...

Now we are seeing blue skies, snow fall and water inches below the surface...

I would say this was GOOD for the cause, n'est pas?

Originally posted by drwizardphd because nasa is the only organization in America that is actively exploring space and publishing information about space.

Well that too is wrong...
The NAVY has its own space program and also publishes a lot of data...

Thing is most people just see NASA

Clementine was a US NAVY/DoD Starwars mission that took photos 'on the side' and most still don't know they were COLOR pictures

www.cmf.nrl.navy.mil...

I really laughed when I saw their disclaimer on the front page

The Naval Research Laboratory is not affiliated in any way with any organization selling lunar property or acreage on the moon. NRL has no involvement, either officially or unofficially, in providing "after-sales service" for the purchase of lunar property from the Lunar Embassy, its franchisees, or any similar organizations. Disputes arising from the purchase of lunar property from such organizations must be resolved with the seller directly.

So if your Lunar land deal falls through, don't bother the NAVY space program



DoD had a press release... 1996 wasn't made public until Oct 2006...

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Transcript

Tuesday, December 3, 1996 - 1:45 p.m.

Subject: Discovery of Ice on the Moon
Dr. Dwight Duston, Assistant Deputy for Technology, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization;
Dr. Paul Spudis, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Rice University;
Dr. Stewart Nozette, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory;
Col. Pedro Rustan, USAF, Director, Small Satellite Program, National Reconnaissance Office;
Christopher L. Lichtenberg, Head, RF Active System Section, Naval Research Laboratory; and
Col. Richard Bridges, USA, director, Defense Information, OASD(PA).

Q: That translates to what in volume?

A: We were very conservative in the press release, but if you take basically 100 square kilometers by roughly 50 feet, you get a volume of something like a quarter of a cubic mile, I think it's on that order. It's a considerable amount, but it's not a huge glacier or anything like that.

Q: Can you compare that with something you know?

A: It's a lake. A small lake.

www.defenselink.mil...

NAVY also put up a tether satellite one month after STS 75 returned. This one was a success and flew for two years and they fire lasers at it to test the power transmission from ground to a spacecraft

hyperspace.nrl.navy.mil... (you won't get in here unless... but the url is interesting

Initial identification of the cadre began in mid-2001 with the standup of the Naval Space Cadre Working Group and culminated in a naval message (NAVADMIN 201/03 DTG211435Z JUL 03) announcing the first 700 officer members of the cadre. These officers were identified by the subspecialty codes of 6206, Space Systems Operations, and 5500, Space Systems Engineering or by the additional qualification designator of VS1, VS2, VS3 or VS4. Identification of enlisted and civilian cadre members is more challenging, as these groups do not have specif?ic space identifiers like the officers do.

Published in a subscription magazine available from Space Command
High Frontier
The Journal for Space and Missile Professionals
Summer 2004

I bet those are those Non-Terrestrial Officers that Gary McKinnon is going to spend 75 years in jail for finding

The NAVY is the REAL space program

Just like it is in Star Trek

But this is the last time I will say that here... no one listens




OH BTW Almost forgot about Astrospies...

These are also not NASA

Secret Astronauts
PBS NOVA "Astrospies"



www.pbs.org...

Enjoy

[edit on 1-10-2008 by zorgon]

I don't know why, but snow falling on Mars reminds me of the movie Robinson Crusoe on Mars from 1964. I don't know if it snowed or not in the movie, but this thread reminded me of it.

reply to post by zorgon


Re: Lunar ice
Still, after more than 10 years, the findings of Clementine are not universally accepted as evidence of water ice on the moon. The Clementine conclusions were based on an improvised radar experiment, the results of which were subject to interpretation. The results of later neutron experiments performed by NASA are also not completely accepted as evidence of water.

The upcoming LCROSS and LRO missions will perform experiments which should be less ambiguous since they are specifically designed to test for water. But, since they are NASA projects. "The boys" around here won't accept the data unless the results are positive for water.

www.space.com...

[edit on 2-10-2008 by Phage]

Originally posted by Phage
the findings of Clementine are not universally accepted as evidence...

The results of later neutron experiments performed by NASA are also not completely accepted as evidence....

Kinda sounds like around here huh?

The upcoming LCROSS and LRO missions will perform experiments which should be less ambiguous since they are specifically designed to test for water.

Yeah that 'experiment' your talking about is to deliberately slam the spacecraft into the water ice to see if they can stir it up... This is NASA science at its best...

NASA’s next mission to Moon will not merely orbit the gray satellite, but crash two vehicles into its South Pole to hunt for water ice, the space agency said Monday.In addition to mapping the Moon to support future astronaut missions, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spaceflight will also aim a spent fuel stage and impactor probe at a southern crater rich in hydrogen and, possibly, ice.

www.space.com...

Now what POSSIBLE scientific value do you gain from shooting a spent fuel cartridge into a crater filled with hydrogen

Smashed a probe into Temple 1 and were surprised by a huge secondary explosion...

Smashed Galileo into Jupiter carrying 17.2 lbs of Plutonium 238 and created a black spot bigger than Earth

Deliberately smashed all the lunar orbiters into the moon to clear space

Cassini carries 33 kg (72 lbs.) of largely plutonium-238 and is destined to be slammed into Saturn in 2010 which spawned the whole "Lucifer Project" ideas


On the way to Mecury the Messenger Mission does a Fly By Shooting of Venus with Lasers...

Yup good hard science at work here

Almost as kewl as Carl Sagan's plan to "Nuke the Moon" to see if any organic material was thrown up

"Yup George there WAS life here "

And don't shoot the "messenger" on the Venus fly by shooting NASA is just as good at sensational stories as we are...

June 5, 2007:

Picture this: A spaceship swoops in from the void, plunging toward a cloudy planet about the size of Earth. A laser beam lances out from the ship; it probes the planet's clouds, striving to reach the hidden surface below. Meanwhile, back on the craft's home world, scientists perch on the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens.

Sounds like science fiction? This is real, and it's happening today.

science.nasa.gov...

But, since they are NASA projects. "The boys" around here won't accept the data unless the results are positive for water.

And the skeptics around here won't accept it until we stick their heads under water and they start gasping for air

NASA science team AFTER Blowing up Temple 1



NASA science team trying to figure out what went wrong on one of the Rovers




I think I know....





[edit on 2-10-2008 by zorgon]