Saturday, June 04, 2005

Cold, dry and lifeless - a new take on Mars

Um . . . Did you say "new"?

"'I'm moving in the direction of 'cold and dry' more and more,' agrees Hamilton. 'But there are other scientists headed in the other direction, thinking Mars was warmer and wetter. It is an ongoing discussion.'"

Slow news day, apparently.

4 comments:

W.M. Bear said...

Olivine tends to sink when it crystallises from magma, which "implies at some depth there has to be a lot more olivine than you see on the surface," says Sharma. The team says there is enough olivine in the top 10 kilometres of the crust to explain the recent detections of methane in Mars's atmosphere - if there are stores of liquid water underground, as many scientists suspect. [Italics mine]

Hey guys, you can't have it BOTH WAYS. If the olivine is reacting with water to produce the atmospheric methane, then Mars ISN'T dry. Come on!

W.M. Bear said...

And speaking of a slow news day:

Scientists confirm liquid water on early Earth

Actually, it's a legitimate story, since the scientists actually determined HOW early water formed on Earth (pretty early!) but side by side with the "dry Mars" story, I got a chuckle out of it anyway.

W.M. Bear said...

I also learned that the earliest geological period on Earth was called the "Hades Eon," which I thought was pretty cool.

Mac said...

The water on Mars "debate" is like some half-witted scientific soap-opera that never ends...