:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 12.23.2004 ::
:: The Dead Red Planet? ::
Mars may be geologically active, new photos imply
Tim Radford, science editor
Thursday December 23, 2004
The Guardian UK
Mars, the red planet, may not after all be the dead planet. New research today by European scientists suggests that volcanoes on Mars last erupted only 2 million years ago and could erupt again.
And dramatic photographs by a high-resolution stereoscopic camera aboard the European spacecraft Mars Express, in the journal Nature, suggest that glacial ice could survive on the western scarp of Olympus Mons, the biggest volcano in the solar system.
Last week, Nature's US rival Science named the confirmation of water on Mars as the scientific breakthrough of 2004. But the revelation that Mars could be geologically "alive" is even more dramatic.
Volcanos eject water and atmospheric gases, recycle mineral nutrients and reshape landscapes. The discovery once again raises the possibility that life might survive on Earth's colder, smaller, dustier neighbour.
"A year or two ago any planetary scientist I know would have said no, Mars has been quiet; it is no longer geologically active," said Alan Moorhouse, of the European spacecraft operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany.
"To find that there has been volcanic activity as recently as 2 million years ago is astounding. In geological terms, 2 million years is yesterday. Anything that happened yesterday can happen again today."
Mars Express began orbiting the red planet in January, after delivering the ill-fated British lander Beagle 2, and began a series of close approaches to map the topography in finer detail than ever before. For the first time, earthbound geologists could study geological features, drainage patterns, evidence of volcanic eruption and traces of ancient ice scars.
Read more here.
posted by me
:: 10:01:00 AM [+] ::
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