Wednesday
Jan272010
A Few Updates Today Inside The Forum.
by
Brian Goodwin on
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 6:12 AM
Brian Goodwin on
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 6:12 AM
Brian Goodwin on
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 6:12 AM
Reader Comments (1)
Say this for earthlings: we've grown up a lot sinceCoach Factory Outlet the time we went nuts over mysterious face on Mars. The faceCoach Outlet Online was discovered in 1976, as the orbiting Viking 1 Coach Factory Outletspacecraft looked down on the planet's Cydonia region and found what Coach Outletappeared to be a dark-eyed set of stony featuresCoach Outlet staring back at it. This gave rise to a lot of fevered talk Coach Factory Onlineabout a vanished (or extant!) civilization signalingCoach Factory Outlet its presence, and even to merchandising opportunities, including Coach Outlet Storeart prints of the eerie face. It also figured prominently Coach Outletin the execrable Brian De Palma movie Mission to Mars.Coach Outlet Online (The man who inflicted Scarface should surelyCoach Outlet have stopped before Marsface.)Cooler heads eventuallyCoach Outlet prevailed after the Mars Global Surveyor resurveyed the site in 1998 Chanel Handbagsand proved that the face was just a mesa, and Coach Outletone that had been heavily windblown over the years at that. The Coach Outletface, in effect, was erased.Happily, there was noChanel Bags similar silliness last week when NASA revealed that the Opportunity Coach Factory Outletrover, which has been prowling the plains and craters of the Red Planet since Coach Outlet Online2004, had discovered, well, Martian patio tiles —Coach Outlet or rectangular formations that looked awfully similar. O.K., Coach Outletrectangles in the Martian soil are admittedly less sexy than faces,Coach Outlet Online but while the face had nothing at all Louis Vuitton Bagsto do with life, the rectangles are one more clue that Coach Factory Outletbiology might indeed be — or at least have been — possible on Mars.Louis Vuitton BagsOpportunity and its rover twin Spirit have spent much ofCoach Factory Store their years of exploration looking for clues to water Coach Outleton Mars, which, of course,Coach Factory Outlet is a sine qua non for life as we know it. The evidence has piled up — Coach Outlet Storeboth in terms of topographic scars that could only have been Coach Factory Outletleft by flowing, pooling or upwelling water; and presence of sulfates, hydroxides Coach Outletand other materials that form in the presence ofChanel Bags water. Last August, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) beamed back Chanel Bagsimages suggesting that liquid water may flow seasonally Louis Vuittonon Mars even today."Since the MRO arrived at Mars, our overarching Coach Factory Storetheme has been 'follow the water,Chanel Handbags'" said mission scientist Mike Meyer at the time of the Coach Outletannouncement. "Now we may be catching Mars inChanel Bags the act."Last week's finding was just as dramatic, though for Louis Vuittondifferent reasons. The images Opportunity returnedCoach Factory Online showed a vein of gypsum about the width of a human Coach Outletthumb and running 16 to 20 in. (40 to 50 cm) in Chanel Bagslength. Ninety-degree fractures along the stretch gave it the look of Coach Outletpainted road lines and the fact that the Coach Factory Outletgypsum was not flush with the surface bedrock is Chanel Bagswhat gave it the three dimensionality of tiling.Coach FactoryOpportunity discovered the vein on the rim of Endeavour Crater, a 14-mile (23 km) diameter formation on the planet's Meridiani Planum.