Huge, frozen sea discovered just below the surface of Mars

"What we'd like is for the European Space Agency (Esa), with UK support, to send its next lander there"

"The fact that there have been warm and wet places beneath the surface of Mars since before life began on Earth, and that some are probably still there, means that there is a possibility that primitive micro-organisms survive on Mars today,"

news.bbc.co.uk...

A new pair of rovers please...

www.space.com...


now also on space.com
I have seen it here on dutch tv news. called NOS.

Awesome! Lets get some major plans going. I think we are going to need people on Mars. If there is no life in the water hopefully we can drink it.

Hrm... you know this does remind me of Total Recall.

EDIT: Thats odd I have no idea how I double posted.

[edit on 22/2/2005 by Umbrax]

wow now we can atleast think it whas possible for life on mars

Originally posted by bloodlust11009
wow now we can atleast think it whas possible for life on mars

No...only life as "we" know it...that always drives me nuts! Why is it that if there is life anywhere else, it must adhere to "our" biology of things?

Originally posted by LadyV

Originally posted by bloodlust11009
wow now we can atleast think it whas possible for life on mars

No...only life as "we" know it...that always drives me nuts! Why is it that if there is life anywhere else, it must adhere to "our" biology of things?

Because that is how "we" look for stuff. "We" will probably be looking in places where it is possibly warm enough for melting to occur. Microbes theoretically should be approximately similiar pretty much throughout our small region of space(im not arrogant enough to say that what applies in our section of the galaxy applies everywhere else), if we detect seizmic activity, or find places where past activity has happened then you can bet those will be places of interest marked for future exploration(if they have not already done so...)

the strangest things because now esa past week it was Nasa scientist claiming the same kind of thing also about water and life on mars. but after those scientist said it they quiclkly changed it and Nasa said it may lead or help in the search for life on mars. :S

www.marsdaily.com...


but the sea on mars is as big as the north sea in front of our shore and like I like to think if that sea is not really being seen because of dust on it only the part with the ice sheets / pack ice ect is seen now but what I like to think is every were we might think is a sea bed it is and were rivers might be there are we can't see because of it being covert by dust ect. so water isn;t gone but stil tthere never gone.

I wonder if there are any martian fish there.

fishing on Mars, now ill buy that for a dollar!
but seriously, it looks like ill be saying a lot of "i told you so" pretty soon

[edit on 22-2-2005 by nukunuku]

here are some more links
'Pack ice' suggests frozen sea on Mars

this one is quite good giving some extra information and pictures of the research concerning the announcement.
PDF document Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

some qoutes from the PDF:

Conclusion: An ice rich layer approximately 40m thick is revealed by the presence of recently activeice-wedge polygons in at least part of the Casiusquadrangle, and possibly more extensively across thenorthern plains. Higher obliquity probably causeddeposition of the mantle before 5 Ma; formation ofpolygons has continued until the present.

Further, the preservation of ice-rich debris beneath a sublimation till suggests that climate conditions haveremained cold and dry on Mars for at least the pastseveral billion years, and that flood residue can bemaintained for unprecedented periods of time. Theformation of extensive sublimation pits stronglysuggests that parts of the remaining deposit arecurrently ice-rich, making this deposit a primary target in exobiological and ancient climate investigations.

This example in the Deuteronilus Mensae region shows an integrated pattern interpreted to represent snow and ice accumulation and flow for ~70 km and resembles valley glacial systems on Earth in major morphology, topographic shape, planform and detailed surface features. These data imply that during the Late Amazonian, significant climate change occurred to cause sustained snow and ice accumulation and flow at mid-latitudes to form a regional system of valley glaciers [22].

Summary: We will show, that even in the equatorial regions of Mars ground ice deposits can be stable over long periods of time. The main assumption we have to do is, that the near surface layer of Mars is not in an equilibrium state. There are mounting evidences of Martian climate cycles on different time scales. One of the shortest time scales indicated by the layering in the polar caps is in the order of only several 10ka.