Scientists discover snow on Mars

Here's another interesting piece of information about Mars...It snows!!!

www.examiner.com...

Scientists have discovered snow on Mars according to a new study; the snowflakes seen on Mars are roughly the size of a human red blood cell. The study information will be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

The snow is considerably smaller than the snow seen on Earth and it is comprised of carbon dioxide instead of water.

Researchers were reviewing video recorded by two spacecraft on the Red Planet that was taken in 2007 to 2008 when they discovered it.

Co-author of the study, Kerri Cahoy of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said: "These are very fine particles, not big flakes." An astronaut standing on Mars "would probably see it as a fog, because they’re so small."

The researchers also discovered that during winter on Mars clouds of snow hang above the ground; they have been observing these clouds for the last decade from NASA’s spacecraft, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The snow on Mars isn't made up of water, but it would still have to be an interesting sight to stand on the surface of Mars and watch it snow.

reply to post by isyeye


@The snow is considerably smaller than the snow seen on Earth and it is comprised of carbon dioxide instead of water

Would this snow sustain EA*RTH based plant life? In return making a Oxygen producing FLORA on MARS?

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13


All we need to do is send up some trees to Mars and we can sustain life it seems.....No??

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13


Interesting question...Maybe they should have taken some plant life for Curiosity to plant on the surface and see what happened.

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

 

All we need to do is send up some trees to Mars and we can sustain life it seems.....No??

Trees or some CO2 terra forming equipment's that would mimic massive tree out puts of Oxygen. Trees and equipment that acts like them but that would be if there were non already there Good idea Chrisfishenstein

Trying to think of how an algae based transformation to assist trees would work. They would need to be based in liquid solution that could allow them to grow and generate oxygen from liquids as well.. This is if EA*RTH is OK to Terra form a MARS now for there could very well already be some intelligent species up there wondering whats going on here now days.

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

 

All we need to do is send up some trees to Mars and we can sustain life it seems.....No??

You would think they would have thought of that.... I wondered that soon as they sent the rover thing to mars, they should have brought water, plants, fire, all kinds of crap to experiment with...

Originally posted by isyeye
reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

 

Interesting question...Maybe they should have taken some plant life for Curiosity to plant on the surface and see what happened.

I don't see that happening.. there is a very real concern of introducing bacteria to the planet ( non-native bacteria ) .. it's careless .. if life does exist on the planet in some form, perhaps under the surface.. foreign bacteria could destroy it.. the rovers are sanitized before their trip.

now if it's established for certain that no life exists on mars in any form .. then I can see that decision being made.. I'm sure they would love to conduct experiments with earth based life on the red planet... just not wise this "early" in

reply to post by miniatus


I'll agree that there is a risk of contamination if you are looking for life on Mars...but, what about another specific mission to establish what life from Earth does on Mars? It might be interesting to know how plants, bacteria, etc. reacted to the Martian atmosphere.

edit: I see you edited your post, answering my above question before I could even ask it.

The snow on Mars isn't made up of water, but it would still have to be an interesting sight to stand on the surface of Mars and watch it snow.

Actually some snow on Mars is composed of water ice. But it doesn't make it to the surface before it sublimates.

A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the spacecraft's landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground.

www.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by isyeye
reply to post by miniatus

 

I'll agree that there is a risk of contamination if you are looking for life on Mars...but, what about another specific mission to establish what life from Earth does on Mars? It might be interesting to know how plants, bacteria, etc. reacted to the Martian atmosphere.

edit on 17-9-2012 by isyeye because: (no reason given)

It would be very useful.. I just think the risk of contamination cancels out the rest until it's established that there's no known signs of biological life currently there.

Imagine a sci-fi scenario =) we introduce plant and bacterial life and they flourish in this alien environment so much that they merge and create a super-species that returns to earth in 100 years to destroy mankind and take over our planet! =)

ok not likely .. I think scientists have a general idea of what would happen to life on the surface.. the amount of radiation hitting the surface would wipe out life as we know it.. they don't expect to find biological material on the surface.. at least that's what I've read.. they expect there could be signs of past life.. and if there is life on the planet currently it would be beneath the surface, away from the radiation .. perhaps in water tables

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein

All we need to do is send up some trees to Mars and we can sustain life it seems.....No??

Sure.
Just find some trees that can live at temperatures of -100º and at an altitude of 100,000 feet.

MARS-
somethings or trees maybe they got trees already?

fluid or something ?

mars something or whatever s?

just MARS

reply to post by Phage

Just find some trees that can live at temperatures of -100º and at an altitude of 100,000 feet.

What if plant life was placed on the surface in an area with a less extreme temperature and lower altitude? Is there a chance it could survive, or would it just be killed due to radiation, toxic gases, etc...?

hypertextbook.com...

"The average recorded temperature on Mars is -63 °C (-81 °F) with a maximum temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) and a minimum of -140 °C (-220 °F)."

reply to post by isyeye

What if plant life was placed on the surface in an area with a less extreme temperature and lower altitude? Is there a chance it could survive, or would it just be killed due to radiation, toxic gases, etc...?

That "altitude" is based on atmospheric pressure at the surface. You might find a lower altitude but it wouldn't help much, maybe the equivalent of 75,000 feet. But you won't really find anyplace with much less "extreme" temperatures. It always goes way below freezing every night, everywhere on the planet.

Radiation levels are a bit of an unknown (Curiosity will help determine that) but the only gas of any significance is CO2.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Chrisfishenstein

 

All we need to do is send up some trees to Mars and we can sustain life it seems.....No??

Sure.
Just find some trees that can live at temperatures of -100º and at an altitude of 100,000 feet.

They could have at least brought a rat

Originally posted by isyeye
reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

 

Interesting question...Maybe they should have taken some plant life for Curiosity to plant on the surface and see what happened.

The average temperature is much too cold for any plant life to survive. Only extremophiles could exist there due to the temperatures. Ameobas, spores, unicellular organisms.... that we know of as "life".

Oh please! Doesn't anybody remember these things?

We knew about this snow in the 1970s. Here's a Viking 2 picture of it:

During the Martian winter, temperatures are so low that the atmosphere freezes out, as dry ice (carbon dioxide) snow. At mid-latitudes, such as the Viking 2 site, the dry ice quickly sublimes (evaporates) back into the atmosphere; but a layer of water ice and dust about a thousandth of an inch thick, which freezes out of the atmosphere with the carbon dioxide, remains on the surface for several months. (JPL, NASA, Planetary Photojournal)

source

reply to post by Phage


Don't we have some tall mountains that are about that?

Time to rob the alps......lol

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

 

All we need to do is send up some trees to Mars and we can sustain life it seems.....No??

Welll, maybe not trees. Something that is cold hardy.....that would grow in the North American Tundra like Artic moss or Artic willow, plants like that. Since the ground is frozen year round, they have plant life that does grow. But really, what the hell would we be doing by introducing life on Mars??? Talk about invading a planet. There might be a reason there's no plant life there....at least that we know of...yet. If it's to totally take over the planet for habitation then if there's no resistance....meehhhhh, but I don't think we know the "Big Picture" yet...or the repercussions.

Originally posted by Ophiuchus 13
reply to post by isyeye

 

@The snow is considerably smaller than the snow seen on Earth and it is comprised of carbon dioxide instead of water

Would this snow sustain EA*RTH based plant life? In return making a Oxygen producing FLORA on MARS?

edit on 9/17/12 by Ophiuchus 13 because: (no reason given)

There is no water. If you find a tree that does not need water and can survive extreme cold let me know. This snow has no water in it by the way. I imagine that is why it is so small and unlike Earth snow.