Click here if you are having trouble logging into the forums
Privacy Policy |
Please read our Terms
of Service | Signup and
Troubleshooting FAQ | Problems? PM a Red or a Green Gu.... uh, User
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
Ice geysers 'discovered on Mars'
An artist's impression shows the geysers erupting through ice
Geysers spewing sand and dust hundreds of feet into the air have been discovered on Mars, scientists say.
Images from a camera orbiting Mars have shown the 100mph jets of carbon dioxide erupt through ice at the planet's south pole, Arizona State University says.
The orbiting camera, called the Thermal Emission Imaging System (Themis), is on the Mars Odyssey probe.
The geyser debris leaves dark spots, fan-like markings and spider-shaped features on the ice cap.
The scientists said geysers erupted when sunlight warming the ice turned frozen carbon dioxide underground into high-pressure gas.
"If you were there, you'd be standing on a slab of carbon dioxide ice," said the university's Dr Phil Christensen.
"All around you, roaring jets of CO2 gas are throwing sand and dust a couple of hundred feet into the air."
Dr Christensen said the process was "unlike anything that occurs on Earth".
His team discovered the jets through examining more than 200 Themis visible and infrared images. The findings were published in the latest edition of the journal Nature
|
dgs©
Postmaster
Reged: 03/29/04
Posts: 14066
Loc: West Monroe, Louisiana
|
|
Seems perfectly obvious once someone points it out.
I caught just a piece of this story where they were explaining the dark areas on the polar ice cap.
--------------------
- david
8"Ø Newtonian on SVP, Moonlite CR2, Telrad
PST Oberwerk Ultra 15x70 Orion Ultraview 10×50
Hand-me-down Sears Refractor (Discoverer) 60mm×900mm
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world, remains and is immortal." --Albert Pike
|
|
0 registered and 0 anonymous users are browsing this forum.
Moderator: llanitedave
Print Thread
|
Forum Permissions
You cannot start new topics
You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled
UBBCode is enabled
|
Thread views: 223
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
