Forest on Mars !?!?

Mars isn't supposed to have enough convection in its mantle to create a magnetosphere. As you mention you need an atmosphere and a magnetosphere to create an ionosphere, where the plasma caused by upper atmospheric elements ionized by the Solar wind is held in place by magnetic field lines. I fink.

Mars Express radar reveals complex structure in ionosphere of Mars

MARSIS, the radar on board ESA's Mars Express, has performed its first sounding of the Martian ionosphere – the upper part of the atmosphere – and found a number of unexpected features.
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This provides further strong evidence for an intimate connection between the ionosphere and the crustal, localised magnetic fields. Where the crustal magnetic field becomes almost vertical, charged particles in the ionosphere tend to concentrate in an upward bulge-structure that gives rise to the oblique echo when hit by the MARSIS radio waves.
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Other unexpected echoes have also been recorded by MARSIS. For example, unusual reflections recorded in the night-side of Mars that would be impossible in a horizontally stratified atmosphere, may indicate the presence of low density 'holes' in the ionosphere, like those observed in the night-side.

* source: ESA............animation of MARSIS sending signals and reciving echoes

It just goes to show, every time they think they know something about the Red Planet, they find out something new that forces them to reappraise. Although, given that the exact mechanism for the generation of our own magnetosphere is still uncertain, it shouldn't really be surprising?

I could not agree more Karilla!


Is there Life on Mars? -----video by J. Skipper


Water...Life on Mars------video



[edit on 27-4-2007 by blue bird]

Originally posted by blue bird

* many colors

AS with most images from Enterprise Mission they do not generally come with source data nor filter and camera data... and that info is critical to deciphering these color images...

But then he has books to sell...

What do you think of the Polar Gas Jet theory?

That these formations are the product of Explosive eruptions of Co2, from under the polar ice. These supposedly carry sand and dust with them as well.

Then it lays out over the ice, in a pattern, such as we are seeing here.

Gas Jets

I'm sure I saw some of these features in the newer Mars Reco Orbiter.
I'll peruse the images over there, and see if I can find one or two.

Certainly worthy of entertainment.

Most of these pictures of "trees" are so obviously not trees simply by looking at the dark portions that extend away from the apparent objects. They clearly are not shadows, as they often extend in a direction not in line with definite shadows. The conclusion therefore is that they are physically related to the structures in question. If these structures are gaseous in nature, well there you go.

On these thread there are some images of some kind of jets, possibly CO2 - we can see high and rather narrow lines.


But - look carefully at this image - jets!? ...don't think so:






[edit on 28-4-2007 by blue bird]

* Mars:




* Earth:

* Brasilian forest:




* Mars:

Originally posted by blue bird
But - look carefully at this image - jets!? ...don't think so:

I don't think so either, but the fact that they are near small jets made me think they are also CO2 releases but not as a jet, maybe because they are near the surface the CO2 is just released on that area.

Having said that, does anyone know what could be the reason for that dark colour? Can the CO2 react with something on the surface?


PS: images that large mess all the page, post only a link when you want to show images larger than the "normal".

* about sizes from Mars images : size of Opportunity on Mars surface:






sourc e

So please -can we take CLOSER look at that maybe vegetation on Mars?



[edit on 28-4-2007 by blue bird]

Those comparisons between the Amazon forest and Mars mean nothing without scale.

Are we looking at photos with the same resolution? Is the photo from Mars closer than the photos from the Amazon forest or is it the other way?

Originally posted by ArMaP


Having said that, does anyone know what could be the reason for that dark colour? Can the CO2 react with something on the surface?

*rocks springing out , they say - mixed with dust....

But, there is article in Nature saying that these spots bear VERY WEAK signature of CO2.

But the authors of a second study in the same issue of Nature question whether the conditions for forming such jets exist in the areas where the spots are seen. Yves Langevin of the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale in Orsay, France, and his colleagues base their argument on observations by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft.

They point out that the areas where the spots appear are "characterised by very weak signatures of CO2 ice, which are not consistent with a thick transparent slab of CO2 ice". This means that whatever CO2 ice is present must be buried beneath the surface, making the jets hard to produce, they say.

Christensen says this is entirely consistent with his team's model. The Mars Express observations were made in the Martian southern hemisphere's late spring, by which time the jets would already have been active for about 30 days, he says. The jet activity would have coated the surface of the ice with lots of sand and dust, leading to the weak CO2 ice signal.

Langevin and his colleagues also question why the spots and spiders do not appear in other places in the south polar cap where Mars Express clearly detects CO2 ice.

Christensen says the jets require a combination of things to form, including clear, dense ice and underlying sand. “I can imagine that the conditions wouldn't always be just right for them to form,” he counters.

Originally posted by ArMaP
Those comparisons between the Amazon forest and Mars mean nothing without scale.

Are we looking at photos with the same resolution? Is the photo from Mars closer than the photos from the Amazon forest or is it the other way?

* images on same scale:






[edit on 28-4-2007 by blue bird]

Originally posted by blue bird
So please -can we take CLOSER look at that maybe vegetation on Mars?

The only thing I have at the momment are the marks of those "CO2 jets". Not a jet in activity (but that should be difficult to catch) or any of those "spiders".

These are from here, with a 50 cm/pixel resolution.

These I do not remember from what HiRISE release are, but I will look.
Edit: I found it, they are from here.

[edit on 28/4/2007 by ArMaP]

ArMaP * scroll all the way down:




source: MSSS

* about “ dust theory“ regarding dark spots:

“John Bridges from the Natural History Museum in London argued for an investigation of similar spots found in the northern polar region, pointing out that wind blown dust could have a role in their formation. Rock weathering, though, was dismissed as a cause "because the spots turn from black to white to black again - and you can't reverse weathering," said Ori.“


* and we can see dune very distinct in appearance - the layer of ice must be unbelievable thin...

ESA on Martian dark spots - good article

No signature of clear CO2 ice from the /`cryptic/' regions in Mars ...
Another issue to be settled is why dark spots, spiders and fans would not form in other regions covered by CO2 ice in winter and spring, in particular the ...
www.nature.com/nature/journal/

[edit on 28-4-2007 by blue bird]

Originally posted by blue bird
ArMaP * scroll all the way down:

I know that photograph, what I wanted to say is that I have not seen any photo with better resolution, like those from HiRISE, of an area with those "spider" formations.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
What do you think of the Polar Gas Jet theory?

Yes that phenomena is very interesting and we have a lot of photos. It was covered a few pages back in this thread...

But you can review our collection on the Geysers here...

Geysers Discovered on Mars