August 6, 2011 2:29 PM EDT
[MUST READ] Scientists: We Live in a Bubble Inside a “Multiverse”Dark lines discovered on Mars by a search algorithm shows indications of flowing water on the surface. The discovery announced by NASA officials could be a huge breakthrough in the search for whether or not liquid water ever existed on the surface of Mars.
Mars surface has erosional features which could only have been formed by water. Are they completely daft? Anyone with one semester of physical geology would immediately recognize the dendritic drainage patterns.
Here is one on Earth
Maybe they mean… still exists? I dunno, so much from NASA these days is nonsense, I am starting to think Hoagland is not a crackpot…
Maybe the University of Arizona can look into whether liquid Helium ever flowed on Barsoom. I mean Mars. Sorry.
Yes, they’re talking about liquid water in the present day. Here’s the abstract of the Science paper.
***************
Water probably flowed across ancient Mars, but whether it ever exists as a liquid on the surface today remains debatable. Recurring slope lineae (RSL) are narrow (0.5 to 5 meters), relatively dark markings on steep (25° to 40°) slopes; repeat images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment show them to appear and incrementally grow during warm seasons and fade in cold seasons. They extend downslope from bedrock outcrops, often associated with small channels, and hundreds of them form in some rare locations. RSL appear and lengthen in the late southern spring and summer from 48°S to 32°S latitudes favoring equator-facing slopes, which are times and places with peak surface temperatures from ~250 to 300 kelvin. Liquid brines near the surface might explain this activity, but the exact mechanism and source of water are not understood.
****************
Most of the reporting on this (including the BBC) got it right – not sure why Steve’s using the International Business Timesfor his information rather than checking out the original sources.
Or, you know, maybe it didn’t. I mean, are they sure or not? Do they honestly think that perhaps it was liquid Neutronium?
Maple Syrup.
Video from NASA about it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkbXUhJb9vU
Looks more like an electrical discharge to me.
http://www.sciencephotogallery.com/electrical_discharge_lichtenberg_figure/print/1698185.html
Sssssh!
Please delete your blog, at least this ridiculous title “Real Science”. You’re a moron. Firstly, consider science as forensic. Evidence is not what it looks like, it is what may be empirically demonstrated. A lot of things act like “water”. Let me rephrase that. A lot of things may be liquid at a particular temperature and pressure. Even heavy gasses invisibly flow exactly like liquid (such as H20 might.) Your high school education (or wherever you received your semester of physical geology) does not qualify you as an analytical thinker.
Forgot to mention. I’m a geologist, and that is erosion caused by water – dumbass.
Oh. My. Goth. Do you watch CSI: BFE every Monday night like me? Cos you sure do write like you watch too many bad detective shows.