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- Aeolis Serpens, Mars’ longest sinuous ridge, is an ancient riverbed
- Most deltas on Mars created by short, catastrophic floods
- Are brines actually needed to make recurring slope lineae flow?
- ‘Faint young Sun paradox’ a problem for Mars (and Earth, too)
- Gale’s winds sculpted the Mt. Sharp mound as they built it
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Tag Archives: atmosphere
Most deltas on Mars created by short, catastrophic floods
Rivers that run into lakes and other standing bodies of water drop sediment where the flow slackens as it enters the body of water. Over time, the accumulating material builds a delta — a wedge of sediment whose form can … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, channels, climate, climate change, crater lakes, delta, deltas, floods, water
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Are brines actually needed to make recurring slope lineae flow?
Recurring slope lineae (RSL) are finger-like dark lines on steep slopes that appear and grow longer during the warmest time of year, then fade and disappear over winter. They repeat the following Mars year in the same places. While scientists … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, climate, climate change, Context Camera, CTX, HiRISE, ice, lineae, LPSC 2013, Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, recurrent slope lineae, recurring slope lineae, RSL, TES, Thermal Emission Imaging System, Thermal Emission Spectrometer, water
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‘Faint young Sun paradox’ a problem for Mars (and Earth, too)
Astronomers say that billions of years ago when the Sun was young, it shone with only 70 percent its current brightness, notes Robert Craddock (Smithsonian Institution). If that were true of today’s Sun, he explains, Earth’s surface would freeze over, … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, climate, climate change, faint young Sun paradox, fluvial channels, Kepler Observatory, LPSC 2013, valley networks, water, wind
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Gale’s winds sculpted the Mt. Sharp mound as they built it
The major reason for sending the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity to Gale Crater is the five-kilometer (three-mile) high layered mound, dubbed Mt. Sharp, that looms at the crater’s center. The lowest layers have been altered by water and perhaps … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, climate change, Curiosity, dust, eolian, Gale Crater, katabatic winds, LPSC 2013, Mars Science Laboratory, Mount Sharp, wind, wind erosion
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Icy jets erupt from north polar dunes in spring
Jets of gas erupting in the springtime from beneath slabs of carbon dioxide ice at the Martian south pole was a dramatic finding in 2006. It explained the mysterious “spiders” which came and went each year. Now the same mechanism … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, CO2 ice, dunes, HiRISE, LPSC 2013, north polar sand sea, sand dunes
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Mars’ ancient climate had a “wet-pass” filter
Volcanic eruptions — and the rocks they produce — dominate the surface of the Red Planet. Mars also shows evidence for activity by liquid water — sediments, channels, and valley networks — through much of its history. While volcanos can … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, climate, climate change, Curiosity, Gale Crater, ice, Mars Science Laboratory, Mount Sharp, snowmelt, water
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Explosive eruptions in dense ancient atmospheres
Explosive volcanic eruptions on an earlier Mars with a thicker atmosphere would have scattered fine ash (pyroclastic debris) mainly east or west of the volcano, a new study finds. Also, a denser ancient atmosphere supports the addition of Arsia and … Continue reading
Loess in the lowlands
A team of geologists led by James A. Skinner, Jr. (U.S. Geological Survey) has discovered and mapped a previously unidentified unit in the Martian northern lowlands. The unit appears to give evidence of a major climate shift long ago in … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, climate change, CO2 ice, CTX, loess, MOLA, north polar ice cap, northern plains, THEMIS
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Hurtling moon casts no cooling shadow
Total solar eclipses on Earth take hours to unfold, even if totality — the brief time when all the Sun is covered — lasts just a few minutes. Almost everyone who stands in the path of a solar eclipse notes … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, Deimos, dust, Mars Odyssey, Phobos, solar eclipses, THEMIS, thermal inertia, transits
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When did the Martian dynamo die?
Current thinking among Mars scientists holds that the Red Planet’s dynamo — the geo-engine in its molten core which generates a global magnetic field — was active soon after the planet formed, but turned off about 4 billion years ago. … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, core dynamo, dynamo, magnetic field, Meroe Patera, Nili Patera, Tyrrhenus Mons
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