Huge seas 'once existed on Mars'

US scientists have found further evidence that huge seas existed long ago on Mars.
Not really breaking news to most of us but it is nice to have more scientific confirmation that Mars once had a friendlier environment for life .
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ee2487e40610.jpg[/atsimg]

Some scientists believe that conditions on Mars were more favourable for the evolution of life at this time than they were on Earth. "This mapping makes geologic interpretations consistent with previous studies, and constrains the timing of these putative lakes to the early-middle Noachian period on Mars," said Dr Leslie Bleamaster, research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson. The researchers say that fine-layered outcrops around the eastern rim of Hellas are likely to be sedimentary deposits.

news.bbc.co.uk...

I guess the only question that remains is how much longer will we have to wait for the confirmation that Mars was or maybe still is home to life ?

[edit on 8-6-2010 by gortex]

Did Mars get a splash during the Deluge from Saturn.
Sounds like it.
www.varchive.org...
Saturn known as the water planet to the ancients.
The Illuminati should know all about that sort of thing.
So now we know that Mars could not hold the water God gave it.
The Mars gravity level is too small.
Another space insult.
But the Red Planet did signal the rise and fall of the Roman empire
in a way.
ED: Mars got water the same way Earth got more perhaps in
the recorded history of the ancients. Some think tank figured
it out and Velikovsky let the cat out of the bag.


[edit on 6/8/2010 by TeslaandLyne]

I guess the only question that remains is how much longer will we have to wait for the confirmation that Mars was or maybe still is home to life ?

That's a big question but it's not the only one. There is a lot to be learned about the things that happen on Mars. There's a lot to be learned before we can live there.

I have read that Mars once had a stronger magnetic field, but for some reason it weakened and allowed Mars' atmosphere to be blown away.

That is key to what happened to the water on Mars, and likely what happened to advanced life on Mars.

www.universetoday.com...

Magnetic analysis of the Martian surface indicates that when Mars was just 500 million years old, its global magnetic field disappeared. Without this shield, streams of ionizing particles spewing from the sun strip away a planet's atmosphere, vaporizing any water on the surface, and killing any life that may have emerged, or perhaps, forcing it underground.

[edit on 8-6-2010 by Fractured.Facade]

reply to post by TeslaandLyne

Originally posted by TeslaandLyne
The Illuminati should know all about that sort of thing.
So now we know that Mars could not hold the water God gave it.

What a load of Hooey!!!

WHY, oh why did you feel the need to sully a scientific thread with such gibberish??

It takes only those bereft of science and knowledge and rationality and reason to believe that hogwash...

NOW, on to the reality and the discoveries.

(I say, regarding Mars and likely exploratory sites, when we have te technology...I'd l;ike to have a look at the bottom of Valles Marineris).

www.britannica.com...

Five times deeper than the Grand Canyon here on earth...the atmospheric pressure at the bottom levels would be (slightly) higher than the average elevations. MAYBE high enough for liquid water, maybe not...still, a great place to check out.




[edit on 8 June 2010 by weedwhacker]

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


are you sure it was water from Saturn. ?

i thought i understood that the early solar system water planet
some have dubbed 'Vulcan' is where the water came from...

Vulcan outgassed/exploded it is theorized, and that where Mars
inundation in the one hemisphere happened...

Mars then survived as a new planet rather than just as a moon of the former water-planet Vulcan (now seen as the ateroid belt)

EPH = exploding planet hypothesis.... google it for more info.

reply to post by St Udio


Mars was always given the too small to have an atmosphere label.
Well at least the same as ours.
So I think it still fits.
At least we know it lost water by some means as recently discovered.


The Velikovsky readings say Saturn was the water planet so
thats where I got that.
www.varchive.org...
I just figured to let Mars have some in the same event recorded
in human history.

Is the Red planet just the iron core or part or a burnt out star.
The Deluge came 7 days after a large flash in the sky and I
think Mars was around then but only noticed by people and
Velikovsky after the Exodus -1500 Comet then morning Star
around -300 and the Roman Empire.

Velikovsky used hard facts of observation and that is science.
Science information about technology involves confidential processes
so we know not to go there but thats not science.
Science is knowing.

Epistemology

Good news, just more proof for the theory there were ancient intelligent civilizations living on Mars some time ago.

reply to post by Cybernet


OK, I'll bite....how is this "proof" of ancient civilizations on Mars?

Let's be clear, using our experience on this planet as example:

HOW LONG has there been intelligent, tool-making species' on this planet? What, 100,000 (Earth) years since the appearence of 'modern' humans? Previous hominids used tools, true...but really didn't have much in the way of 'civilization', and certainly no technology.

OUR technology is only, what? A few thousand (at most) years old?

On Mars....the loss of any past biosphere, including a sufficiently thick atmosphere for liquid water to exist on the surface, must have occured many hundreds of thousands, but more probably millions (or even billions) of years ago.

Seems highly unlikely, based on the history and development we've intimate knowledge of, here on Earth, that another intelligent, technologically advanced species would have had time to develop on Mars, before its climate situation changed so drastically.

I think one must step back, and remember the vast spans of time we're dealing with, here. They are way beyond normal Human experience, and require some contemplation.

reply to post by weedwhacker


The Earth is over 4 billion years old , one would assume that Mars has a similar chronology , Mars may have had a livable atmosphere for a couple of billion years or so , plenty of time for evolution to do it's work .
We have no way of knowing with any certainty when Mars lost it's atmosphere , it may of only been in the last couple of million years , maybe less , I don't see any reason to rule out the possibility that intelligent life may of evolved on Mars even before it evolved on Earth .

How old is Mars? The same age as Earth I am guessing right? Could it be possible that Earth and Mars could both have the conditions favourable for life, at the same time?

Originally posted by Maddogkull
How old is Mars? The same age as Earth I am guessing right? Could it be possible that Earth and Mars could both have the conditions favourable for life, at the same time?

From Universe today .

Planetary scientists think that Mars, and the rest of the Solar System, all formed together from the solar nebula about 4.6 billion years ago. So Mars is 4.6 billion years old.

It's generally accepted that Mars was a wetter and warmer place in its past so until whatever happened on Mars happened it may well have been as favorable to life as the young Earth
www.universetoday.com...

reply to post by gortex

Because of its smaller size, it's possible that conditions on Mars became suitable for life before they did on Earth (it would have cooled faster). However there is evidence that Mars lost its magnetosphere about four billion years ago. Any atmosphere which would allow liquid water to exist on the surface of Mars would have been stripped away by the solar wind billions of years ago. While there are some indications that there may be liquid water under the surface of Mars, it has been a very, very long time since there were any seas.

reply to post by Phage

. However there is evidence that Mars lost its magnetosphere about four billion years ago.

Source please

Yeh until they were drilling for oil there was an explosion and then tons of oil intoxicated it

This is an amazing "find" ... I think we've all really had a hunch there were even people living on mars at one point (perhaps our ancestors) .. it isn't that unrealistic, it just makes you wonder what happened and how we got here (if that were true that is).

reply to post by gortex

The Hellas and Argyre impact basins lack magnetic fields. This indicates that they formed after the global magnetic field of Mars had disappeared, otherwise the molten material which was created by the impacts would have acquired the magnetic signature of the global field. The impact basins are dated at 4 billion years.

www.lpi.usra.edu...
www.es.ucsc.edu...

Great OP.

I like playing the "what if" game.

But what if, millions of years ago, life flourished on Mars. Intelligent life. what if they predicted and prepared for the impending climatic decay, and took off for the stars?

Obviously the fact that no ruins still being present is a huge deterrent to this thought, but what if they simply no longer exist? Millions of years is quite a long time.

reply to post by Phage


Isn't it also possible that the lack of magnetism of the Hellas and Argyre crater regions is due to geological reasons or as a result of shock pressures caused by the impacts .
If so Mars's magnetic field may well have still been in operation well after the impacts
denali.gsfc.nasa.gov...
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/93c0b53fb475.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 8-6-2010 by gortex]

reply to post by gortex

Possible.

But the ongoing magnetic mapping of Mars (since that 2002 article) tends to indicate that the global field died very long ago.

adsabs.harvard.edu...
www.pnas.org...
adsabs.harvard.edu...
adsabs.harvard.edu...


You will also note that the article in the OP places the existence of the seas in the early-middle Noachian period; about 4 billion years ago.

reply to post by Phage


Thanks for the links Phage , but I see no real evidence that Mars lost its magnetosphere about four billion years ago , only theory and as we know theory's chance over time .
I guess the only way we will know for sure is when we finally get feet on the ground , unfortunately I doubt that will be in our lifetimes
Maybe the Mars sample return mission will add some tangible evidence to the debate but it's a long wait till 2020 .