This sort of thing is certainly not my area of expertise, and i don't know what filters or light bandwidth is being used for these images - however,
it occurs to me that water is not a naturally occuring "blue" even here on earth, but rather a reflection of the color of the sky.
Therefore it would stand to reason that if the sky is not blue on mars, then the water would not appear that way either.
The counterpoint of this would be that this blue substance is gradient in appearance as if it shows varying depths as water would, and there is
apparent erosion of the land surounding the blue substance - as if it were a martian "grand canyon"..
Regarding the green, it is certainly diiferent in appearance from the blue, does not show gradience, therefore no variety of depth. To me it could be
vegetation or perhaps some kind of mineral spewed from fisures. if you look closely the green seems to start in "northwest" and spread from several
small locations to a much larger area...
Very interesting images - i look forward to hearing how the space agnecies explain this...
Originally posted by Kriskaos
The green color in plants is caused by chlorophyl the main stuff in plants but thats just on earth. Vegatation also needs gases to survive like co2
nitrogen. and a mineral based soil. If there was vegatation on mars it would be adapted to the mars climate also it probably micro sized and probably
not really green.
I'm not sure about this either, but isn't martian atmosphere supposed to be high in carbon dioxide? perfect for plants, although the temperature
extremes may be prohibitive for anything beyond algae to develop...
[Edited on 29-1-2004 by intelgurl]