Mars Craft Detects Falling Snow, page 1
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Topic started on 29-9-2008 @ 10:06 PM by loam


Mars Craft Detects Falling Snow

Soil Tests Also Hint at Past Presence of Liquid Groundwater

Icy snow falls from high in Mars's atmosphere and may even reach the planet's surface, scientists working with NASA's Phoenix lander reported yesterday.

Laser instruments aboard the lander detected the snow in clouds about 2 1/2 miles above the surface and followed the precipitation as it fell more than a mile. But because of limitations with the technology, it was unclear whether any of the powdery stuff made it all the way to the surface.

"Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway of York University in Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground."



Cool.


reply posted on 29-9-2008 @ 10:52 PM by RuneSpider
reply to post by justsomeboreddude



Mars has a atmosphere, it's thinner than ours, but it's why in some photos of Mars you can get a light (much lighter than ours) blue sky.
I'm not as surprised it snows there as I was at first, when I thought about it.
Now if it rained, that'd be amazing.


reply posted on 29-9-2008 @ 11:00 PM by mystiq
Of course snow and precipitation would be needed for the forests and green plant life evident:

www.marsanomalyresearch.com...



That is Japan, and now this is mars:



Also, compare this from earth:



The above Earth based second image is an aerial view of a forest canopy in Virginia Beach here in the USA. Note the variety of tree tops where the sunlight is reflecting strongly off of the branching's with the least leafy growth on them. Note the look of those light reflective branching's. The parallel with the Mars evidence branching's should be obvious to most of you. The only real difference is the massive size scale of the Mars evidence relative to this tiny by comparison Earth evidence. This image was sent to me by Calvin Lipscomb (nenoy2@verizon.net) recognizing the similarities with the Mars evidence and the help is appreciated.


with:



Mars.


reply posted on 29-9-2008 @ 11:20 PM by justsomeboreddude
reply to post by mystiq


Ok I think you just jumped the shark. I will believe there are forests on mars when they show me some pictures of trees on mars.


reply posted on 30-9-2008 @ 12:53 AM by Phage
reply to post by screamo



Perhaps because, as it falls, it sublimates (evaporates). The particles get smaller and smaller until they get too small for the lidar to track.


reply posted on 30-9-2008 @ 04:27 PM by screamo
reply to post by Phage



Okay, well that makes sense. I totally didn't put snow melting in the picture! (that wasn't sarcasm although it probably reeked of it). Thanks for the easy eye opener!!

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