|
Mars thread
|
|
| DoctorOfSpace | Date: Saturday, 29.12.2012, 09:45 | Message # 106 |
 Galaxy Architect
Group: Global Moderators
Pirate
Messages: 3600
Status: Offline
| Quote (DaninAus) From what I'm guessing, the core solidifying is probably why we haven't really seen any evidence of activity on Mars in a while.
No core means no magnetic field means lots of solar radiation slamming into the surface. If you know much about biology and physics, genetic material doesn't handle it so well.
Quote (DaninAus) If that core does solidify and the planet cools
When the core fully solidifies then there will be no areas with a magnetic field. Currently there are small pocket fields around the southern hemisphere. Once the field is fully gone Mars will most likely lose it's remaining atmosphere as the solar winds strip it away.
Earth faces the same fate, but not for a much longer time. Quite possibly not until after the sun dies and then it won't really matter.
Quote (DaninAus) any chance of finding current life (like microbes) in an underground aquifer starts getting very small as that aquifer will freeze as well leaving only evidence of life.
That won't happen for a while. We are talking about geologic time scales so humans have plenty of time.
Quote (DaninAus) That would also mean that the plate tectonics would have already stopped am I right?
No they just slow down and Mars only has a couple unlike Earth. Most likely as the insides have cooled the tectonic plates fused into larger sections.
Quote (DaninAus) Also, with the non existent magnetic field,
Mars still has a magnetic field, but it is very very weak. However because of the way its core and mantle are it generates small pocket magnetic fields, mainly around the southern hemisphere however there have been small pockets detected in regions of the northern hemisphere.
You can find more information from NASA or from here
http://lasp.colorado.edu/~bagenal/3750/ClassNotes/Class19/Class19.html
Quote (DaninAus) we humans would have to find some sort of solution for that before we could even think about heading to Mars ourselves as the radiation from the sun would fry us in minutes.
No way to restart the dynamo known right now. Personally when I think of future humans they probably won't need to terraform. However if they decide to turn Mars into an earth like world then an artificial magnetic field would need to be made on a planetary scale.
Quote (DaninAus) Edit: Another question is then, where is all this methane gas coming from that's being detected? Could it be a side effect of the core solidifying?
Just like there is methane frozen in ice on Earth I suspect you'd find it on Mars too. Especially if there are microbes producing it below the surface, however on Mars it is still in very low quantities compared to on Earth for obvious reasons.
Intel Core i7-5820K 4.2GHz 6-Core Processor
G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
EVGA GTX 980 Ti SC 6GB
Edited by DoctorOfSpace - Thursday, 16.08.2012, 05:08 |
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Saturday, 29.12.2012, 09:45 | Message # 107 |
 Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| Quote (DoctorOfSpace) Mars still has a magnetic field, but it is very very weak. However because of the way its core and mantle are it generates small pocket magnetic fields, mainly around the southern hemisphere however there have been small pockets detected in regions of the northern hemisphere.
From what I understand, Mars' magnetic fields aren't generated from internal dynamo, but from localized pockets of magnetism in the older rocks that formed when Mars had a much stronger field. This is supported by the map that you showed, where the older terrain shows more magnetism. I don't see how any sort of dynamo activity could produce such wildly varied magnetic environments near the surface.
Quote (DoctorOfSpace) When the core fully solidifies then there will be no areas with a magnetic field. Currently there are small pocket fields around the southern hemisphere. Once the field is fully gone Mars will most likely lose it's remaining atmosphere as the solar winds strip it away.
I had thought that Mars' current magnetism was not strong enough to influence the solar wind in such a way as to significantly reduce sputtering. And I made my comments on the dynamo above.
Quote (DaninAus) That would also mean that the plate tectonics would have already stopped am I right?
No. Read the article, they suspect that the activity continues to this day.
Quote (DaninAus) Edit: Another question is then, where is all this methane gas coming from that's being detected? Could it be a side effect of the core solidifying?
I don't see how. If anything, the interior solidifying would make methane out-gassing even less likely. What ever is responsible for the methane is probably very interesting though.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
Edited by HarbingerDawn - Thursday, 16.08.2012, 06:46 |
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Saturday, 29.12.2012, 09:45 | Message # 108 |
|
Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| More Mars atmosphere shots from Rosetta emphasizing clouds and other structures:
Quote (OrbitalResonance) Will curiosity take pictures of Earth in the sky?
Probably at some point I would think. The MERs did some pretty amazing astronomical observations, and MSL is FAR better equipped to perform those same observations, so I have high hopes that we will see some pictures of Earth, Jupiter, Phobos and Deimos, and the stars at some point.
Here are some that were done by the MERs:
Phobos and Deimos near Taurus:
Phobos entering Mars' shadow (eclipse)
Phobos rising and Deimos setting in the western sky in the Martian pre-dawn
Star trails from Spirit
Earth rising on Mars 
Deimos transiting the sun
Phobos transiting the sun
Deimos transiting the sun
A great movie of a Phobos transit: http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_....rge.mov
Phobos setting and Deimos rising in the eastern Martian sky at night:
Annotated version of the above:
Sunrise timelapse:
Here is another Mars pic that I forgot to upload earlier; I don't remember where I found it. Anyway, this is my edit of it:
(I am going to hate myself later for posting all these images in a thread, I'll never be able to load it again  )
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
|
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Monday, 11.03.2013, 20:44 | Message # 109 |
|
Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| Lovely old Viking pic
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
|
| |
| |
| Tim | Date: Friday, 29.03.2013, 20:04 | Message # 110 |
 Explorer
Group: Users
Belgium
Messages: 296
Status: Offline
| I may have missed the Moonlanding, but hell I ain't missing the Marslanding! :P Added (29.03.2013, 23:04)
---------------------------------------------
This is quite fun :P
http://www.360cities.net/image....10,42.5
|
| |
| |
| Solaris | Date: Saturday, 30.03.2013, 02:21 | Message # 111 |
 World Builder
Group: Global Moderators
France
Messages: 731
Status: Offline
| Martian Mountainside - August 21, 2003
The Solar System's greatest mountain, Olympus Mons (dont forget the full res!):
Cloudy Martian Mountaintop - May 4, 2003
Arsia Mons shrouded in clouds.
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems/Bill Dunford
|
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Friday, 12.04.2013, 10:31 | Message # 112 |
|
Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| Thanks to the efforts of Vitaly Egorov and his followers who searched through nearly two billion pixels worth of imagery to find something that was 8 by 8 pixels, it appears likely that the long-lost Soviet Mars-3 lander - the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars - has been found!
Once they identified likely-looking features in the images, they sent the information to the HiRISE team, which decided to perform follow-up imaging for verification. Those images confirmed the existence of the features, which match the size and shape of the Mars-3 hardware, and are distributed in a manner consistent with the decent profile of the Mars-3 landing system.
This discovery proves how valuable the efforts of ordinary people, not just scientists, can be to Mars exploration.
Read more here:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro2013411.html
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro....ID=1463
http://habrahabr.ru/post/175827/
Thanks to NuclearCHE on the Russian forum for sharing this news first.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
|
| |
| |
| SpaceEngineer | Date: Friday, 12.04.2013, 12:07 | Message # 113 |
 Author of Space Engine
Group: Administrators
Russian Federation
Messages: 4800
Status: Offline
| Quote (Solaris) The Solar System's greatest mountain, Olympus Mons (dont forget the full res!):
Looks like render of the texture on the flat mesh. In 3D it looks much more bumpy, and martian surface should be noticeably round at this scales.
|
| |
| |
| NovaSilisko | Date: Saturday, 13.04.2013, 01:04 | Message # 114 |
 Explorer
Group: SE team
United States
Messages: 288
Status: Offline
| Well, we've found Mars 3... next up: Beagle 2 and MPL!
|
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Thursday, 25.04.2013, 18:13 | Message # 115 |
|
Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| Wonderful new stereo panorama of Endeavour crater by Opportunity (3289 sols and still going strong!)
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
|
| |
| |
| Crashman1390 | Date: Friday, 26.04.2013, 04:17 | Message # 116 |
 Explorer
Group: Users
Canada
Messages: 229
Status: Offline
| Quote (Flynn) I have a bunch of False Color Mars images
All Mars images are false color...
[b]I was wrong, this forum still has a horrible community.[/b]
|
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Friday, 26.04.2013, 04:20 | Message # 117 |
|
Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| Quote (Crashman1390) All Mars images are false color...
Incorrect.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
|
| |
| |
| Crashman1390 | Date: Friday, 26.04.2013, 04:25 | Message # 118 |
|
Explorer
Group: Users
Canada
Messages: 229
Status: Offline
| Quote (HarbingerDawn) Incorrect.
Do tell.
[b]I was wrong, this forum still has a horrible community.[/b]
|
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Friday, 26.04.2013, 04:29 | Message # 119 |
|
Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| Quote (Crashman1390) Do tell.
Curiosity takes images with a Bayer color filter like pretty much any consumer digital camera so it can take native true color RGB images. Also, even the older Mars surface cameras that had to take different wavelength photos could have their images composited into roughly natural color products, though how close to natural color it is depends on how the processing is done and who's doing it.
For example, the Viking photo a few posts back is pretty darn close to how it would look if you were there.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
Edited by HarbingerDawn - Friday, 26.04.2013, 04:31 |
| |
| |
| midtskogen | Date: Friday, 26.04.2013, 05:28 | Message # 120 |
 Star Engineer
Group: Users
Norway
Messages: 1674
Status: Offline
| Quote (HarbingerDawn) For example, the Viking photo a few posts back is pretty darn close to how it would look if you were there.
Possibly, but the sky of the Viking photos have a pretty blue tint. It's difficult to recreate the colours as "if you were there". The human eye adapts and performs its own corrections, so to mimic, that "false colour" (i.e. not raw sensor data) generally improves the image subjectively. Ideally the correction should take into account what kind of lighting you're viewing the image in. In the future perhaps images will be stored without correction, but the light conditions at the place where the images were taken will be stored as meta data. Then the display device will use that data and data from a sensor detecting the light conditions where the display is will perform the necessary corrections. I think standardisation work of this has been ongoing for some time now.
NIL DIFFICILE VOLENTI
Edited by midtskogen - Friday, 26.04.2013, 05:29 |
| |
| |
ENG
New site
Pirate 
United States 
Belgium 
France 
Russian Federation 
Canada 
Norway