http://mysite.verizon.net/rickmsmith/MarsOceanProject.html

The results indicate that the purported shorelines delineate two “containers” that could hold large amounts of water.

What happened next is not 100% certain, but Global Surveyor’s readings are consistent with the following scenario: “The joined fields wrapped themselves around a packet of gas at the top of the Martian atmosphere, forming a magnetic capsule a thousand kilometers wide with ionized air trapped inside,” says Brain. “Solar wind pressure caused the capsule to ‘pinch off’ and it blew away, taking its cargo of air with it.” Brain has since found a dozen more examples. The magnetic capsules or “plasmoids” tend to blow over the south pole of Mars, mainly because most of the umbrellas are located in Mars’ southern hemisphere.

Instead of protecting poor Mars from solar wind it is possible it join forces to strip the atmosphere.

Saying the issue is how long, not whether, Mars had water, the Bad Astronomer himself, Phil Plait, goes on to suggest that the issue has relevance for our own planet: It may have once been much more Earth-like, but then…

Depends on what you mean by terraforming, exactly… Without a viable magnetic field or active plate tectonics, you can’t really terraform it.

What you definitely would need is a very long time. It took about a billion years to terraform Earth.

It’s been argued for years that Mars may have once had oceans of water, billions of years ago. Some catastrophe dried them up, making the evidence for them difficult to detect. Topographic (relief) maps look like there may have been two oceans in one…

I think that those “damn scientists”, as you refer to them, are just sticking to the principle of E-Prime; e.g., avoiding the use of the verbs: be, is, am, are, was, were, been, being, and also their contractions.

The rationale behind the use of E-Prime suggests that it leads to a less dogmatic style of language that reduces the possibility for misunderstanding and for conflict.

Its quite simple – Stop trying to hide the fact – there was water there – probably still is.
I guess its this horrid idea that close minded bible bashing / muslim extremists just can’t handle the fact that God and Allah didn’t make planet earth the chosen planet for us (Humans) in this massive universe and leave every other planet dead and at a temp of 2000 degrees.

Next thing they will come up with is – “Well it appears there may have been life here too!?”

GASP!

Well I think a medal is in order smarty pants.

Also, I’d be a little surprised to find that there could be such so much water around on the surface that it gives an ocean in the north without producing so much erosion that it completely erases more of those heavily cratered highlands in the south. A body of water that big should be able to produce a global-scale hydrological cycle, but in the south there is very little sign of that happening.

So while a Mars ocean would be a cool thing, I’m afraid I’m going to remain skeptical on this one. Certainly there was water flowing on Mars at various times in the planet’s history, but the evidence for an ocean needs to get a lot more compelling yet (such as maybe finding those shorelines after all).

Great article, Phil, and one well worth spending part of a lunch hour reading.

Digest and Digress are not the same.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/Summary.html

I really was wondering what science they do up there so I went to NASA’s official page on it.

It’s so bad that I’m not even going to make fun of it. It’s so bad that even NASA knows it’s bad (and so fills it with repeated entries about “journals” and amateur radio and, and- we’re now sending MORE people up there to do absolutely nothing worthwhile?!).

Oh, and Russia is going to be the sole gatekeeper to it for 5 plus years. Completely in control of access to it. They will have exclusive access to the “Sleep-Wake Actigraphy and Light Exposure during Spaceflight-Long” experiment! Those are journal entries of how good a night’s sleep somebody had! Priceless.

But all dumb spending should be cut- whether it’s for failed crop subsidies, a war in Iraq, or, quite honestly, a space station whose merits for existence are just, well, not really justifiable. The fact is NASA has to live within a budget that Congress creates. They should make the smartest choices possible. Spitzer, Chandra, Mars Rovers, Cassini, etc. – these all have provided massive science returns. ISS? Yeah, not so much. Fascinating toilets though.

What do they do up there in the space station anyway? Where are the scientific results? We know they won’t use the station as a way point to Mars or the Moon. And the station isn’t “exploration” to boldly go somewhere. It’s low Earth orbit (yeah I know, “halfway to anywhere” when you get there- but they won’t use it that way!).

I’m not knocking NASA. I think NASA rocks. I want them to go find life on other planets (imagine being the agency that does that! As I said, EPIC) and make other kinds of great discoveries of our Universe. And I think they will be much more equipped to do that when they make the very, very difficult decision of admitting that the ISS is mostly a public works project of dubious scientific value. And then redirect funds (as best they can) to more worthwhile projects.

Stop getting your “facts” from Rush Limbaugh. The man is a shameless liar and you only make yourself look foolish by believing him.

The conservative viewpoint is a valid one (even if I personally disagree with it most of the time), but Rush Limbaugh is just dishonest to his very bones.