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- CRISM: Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars
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- THEMIS: Thermal Emission Imaging System
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Tag Archives: water
‘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,
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 Crater’s Lake District
Mars rover Curiosity landed on, or just beyond, the far end of an alluvial fan — rocks, gravel, and sand washed down by the Peace River from the north rim of Gale Crater. The rover has driven for 200 sols … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged alluvial fans, climate change, Crater Lake, craters, Curiosity, Gale Crater, HiRISE, LPSC 2013, MSL, water
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Subsurface radar profiles Marte Vallis outflow channel in 3D
Ground-penetrating radar on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) reveals buried channels that show floods of water from Cerberus Fossae eroded Marte Vallis in two distinct stages, and they did so to a much greater extent than is visible today. The … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged channels, Elysium, Elysium Planitia, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Marte Vallis, MRO, outflow channels, Shallow Radar, SHARAD, water
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Megaflood carved a valley in a week
Morella Crater is an ancient impact scar 78 kilometers (49 miles) across that sits barely 5 km (3 mi) away from the southern edge of the large canyon, Ganges Chasma. Roughly 3 billion years ago, groundwater filled Morella Crater with … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged channels, Crater Lake, Elaver Vallis, Ganges Cavus, Ganges Chasma, groundwater, megaflood, Morella Crater, outflow channels, water
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What Earth’s saltiest pond says about Mars
An Antarctic pond that’s the saltiest natural body of water on Earth stays wet in part by pulling moisture out of the air, scientists have discovered. And that has implications for possible brine seeps and reservoirs on Mars. Don Juan … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Antarctica, brine seeps, brines, calcium chloride, deliquescence, Don Juan Pond, ice, lineae, liquid water, ponds, recurring slope lineae, RSL, water
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Hardened arteries in Nili and Nilo
Water seeping through conduits and cracks in the deep subsurface rocks of Nilosyrtis and Nili Fossae left behind minerals, like hard-water deposits that collect in the plumbing of your house. (Or cholesterol in your arteries.) Then as the softer rocks … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged clay minerals, cracks, CTX, Curiosity, fractures, Gale Crater, groundwater, gypsum, HiRISE, Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MSL, Nili Fossae, Nilosyrtis, Opportunity, phyllosilicates, water
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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 Aeolis Mons, atmosphere, climate, climate change, Curiosity, Gale Crater, ice, Mars Science Laboratory, Mount Sharp, snowmelt, water
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Caverns in the northern lowlands?
Vast quantities of water have poured across the surface of Mars in ages past. The evidence is obvious in dozens of outflow channels, large and small. The waters emerged, scientists think, from subsurface reservoirs when the frozen ground capping them … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged caverns, CTX, groundwater, Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MOLA, THEMIS, water
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Salty flows on Mars
The features known as “recurring slope lineae” (RSL) are the best evidence going that liquid water can, and does, flow on present-day Mars. The lineae are small dark streaks that appear mostly on equator-facing slopes, are associated with slope channels, … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged brines, CRISM, lineae, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, recurring slope lineae, RSL, water
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Wet debris flows carved (some) Mars dune gullies
Located west of the big Hellas impact basin in Mars’ southern hemisphere, Russell Crater spreads 135 kilometers (84 miles) wide. A notable feature within it is a broad dune field with a “megadune” heaped up toward the east. The megadune … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged dunes, gullies, HiRISE, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Russell Crater, water
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