The Mars Thread

[Lupine]

With discoveries from Curiosity coming so fast and furious, I figured we needed a dedicated Mars thread.

First up: A stream bed has been found and it might have flowed for at least a thousand years!
I'm wondering if it might have been more recent though. Even with Mars's thin atmosphere you'd think this feature would have been covered up my now.

[RJDiogenes]

Wow. That is fantastic. The remains of a babbling brook, right off the bat. This landing site is going to be a treasure trove.

I agree that it seems unlikely to be that old. Billions of years is a long time. Between impacts and dust storms, you'd think it would be either covered up or worn away or just obliterated. But if it is that old and still visible right at the surface, that means that any fossil evidence could be readily visible as well.

[Gary]

I'ma stake a gold mining claim.

"GIT OFFA MY CLAIM!"

[Lupine]

^Ironically with the geology there could very well be gold.

[RJDiogenes]

There's gold in them thar hills.

Image how much Martian gold would be worth.

[Lupine]

Looks like Curiosity has picked up some junk- literally.
The article itself doesn't have much yet, but makes sure to read the comments.

[RJDiogenes]

My favorite:

What’s the angle subtended between Curiosity’s descent trajectory and its path to this object? If that angle is a multiple of pi, root-5, root-2, e, the golden ratio (is that phi? I can’t remember) or any other number at all, then its definitely part of an alien city.

If it is something biological, then there are likely to be many more around-- what are the odds of Curiosity finding the only one within miles?-- so it should be easy to prove. I just hope it's not evidence of damage to the rover.

[Lupine]

^Me too.

[Lupine]

BA just posted THE. BEST. MARS. PIC. EVER. (so far).
It took me around a half-hour with my slow internet to download the full pic, but WOW is that awesome!

[RJDiogenes]

Wow, indeed. I love the detail in these high-res pictures. The texture of the ground, the mountains fading into the distance-- it's almost like being there. There's a link there to another astronomer who points out that you can even see the reflection of the robotic arm on the main rover. They've also made a red-green 3D image of it; I'll have to look for my glasses.

Kind of funny how they edited out the arm that took the picture so that it wouldn't look like robo-erotica from ishotmyself.com.

[RJDiogenes]

My brother sent me this link. Sounds pretty optimistic, not only for Human exploration, but also for the prospect of life.

[RJDiogenes]

Now they're trying to drive us crazy.

[Lupine]

Yeah I saw that late yesterday but didn't have time to post it. Is it something or are they just teasing us? NASA has had the bad habit lately of over-blowing relatively minor discoveries. But, this is a carbon detector we're talking about so I'm guessing that some form of carbon was discovered. Who knows, maybe even an amino acid. Neither would be that earthshaking though it would overturn the Viking results which didn't find carbon. And amino acids have been found in meteors.
But I keep hoping that it's something major like a nucleic acid or something that would indicate life.

EDIT: Even Phil Plait is telling everyone to calm the bleep down about this.

[RJDiogenes]

I completely agree with him. I'm not getting my hopes up. Okay, yeah, I'm getting my hopes up. But I'm telling myself not to get my hopes up.

And I love that graphic.

[Lupine]

I'm trying to not get my hopes up either considering NASA's track record here. Amino acids or calcium carbonate would be great to find but not worth all the hype.