#October2011
The White Rock Fingers of Mars Are Clawfully Awesome. [Pun Fail ++]
Enlarge. | Via.
Check out the white rock fingers of Mars. Once thought to be dried up lakebed, recent findings have them being something different altogether. The remains of Martian rave sites, dedicated to their Red War God, Urutur. I made that up.
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One Mineral Could Tell Exactly When Mars Was Covered In Water. Science Get!
At this point we know that Mars has water. Had water. Maybe has water, definitely had water. One mineral we’ve retrieved from the Angry God could held the key to figuring out exactly when the Red One was covered in water.
Mars’ Dry Ice Pits Exposed During Its Thaw, Reveals Gold! Maybe. Sorta.
At the end of every summer, Mars gets its thaw on. When this occurs, dry ice pits are exposed, and they’re lined by…scientists arent’ really sure.
This Is The Remains Of A River On Mars. Solar System Swoon.
This is a picture of Mars. A picture of another planet. A big round conglomeration of awesomeness that has ice, water, maybe life, and goddamn used to have rivers. This is a picture of another planet. So outstanding to think about every once in a while. And as I said, it’s a picture of the remains of a river. On another planet.
Image: Sand Pit On Mars. Where The Sarlacc At?
(Click image to enlarge. Via.)
Behold this righteous sand pit found on the surface of Mars. It leads to a cavern beneath the surface where undoubtedly Martians are planning their fatal assault on Mars-2, or what we call Earth. They terraformed it, they released us onto it, and now they’re coming home. Uh, right? Moving on.
Wondering how such a thing came to be?
Wandering Jupiter Responsible For Mars’ Small Size.
Mars isn’t as big as Earth, not by a longshot. It clocks in at 1/10th the mass, and 1/2 the size. Why is that? Did Mars not use protein shakes after powerlifting? Intergalactic anorexia? Some other poor joke? No sir. It’s because it had to contend with a roaming Jupiter back in the day.
Deep Fractures On Mars’ Surface Paint Gorgeous Calamity.
Mars’ Northern Chasm Looks Like Tatooine. Or Earth. Sexy.
Spying On The Mars Opportunity Rover From Space!
Watch the fuck out! That’s the Mars Opportunity rover rolling up on a crater. Don’t do it! Life’s worth living! This picture is pretty awesome. It’s of a piece of technology we placed down to explore an alien world being seen by another piece of technology we jettisoned into space and traveled 35-million miles.
Righteous.
Via.
Liquid Water Found On Mars? No Srsly Guys, Maybe This Time Yes?
Every cosmonaut geek knows one thing: you can’t go a month or two without a new story about water on Mars. Or life. Microbes and water. Every month, coming atcha courtesy of our favorite Red Planet. This time, the OH MY GOD WATER ON MARS storyline revolves around the Spirit Rover, and its dumb ass getting stuck in Mars’ soil. Dost it drag up some interesting bullshit whilst stuck there? Why, just maybe!
io9:
For the past year and a half, Spirit has been stuck at a Martian site called Troy, where the rover’s wheel broke through a crust and churned into soft sand. But it hasn’t sat completely idle. NASA researchers have used Spirit’s downtime to investigate the soil at Troy, and have found the site may see liquid water during certain climate cycles.
Near the soil’s surface sit relatively insoluble minerals, which the researchers believe to be hematite, silica and gypsum. Further down in the soil are ferric sulfates, more soluble minerals that the researchers speculate were carried down in the soil by liquid water. None of the minerals are exposed at the surface despite the wind constantly stripping and altering the landscape, which indicates that the minerals were carried down relatively recently and continuously, with the ferric sulfates being carried down further than the less soluble minerals.
Interesting? Sure. Sure? Sure! I’m waiting for the day the US government finally unveils the fact that it found artifacts from a fallen human civilization. You know, the one that made it to Mars, only to have their existence on Earth obscured from history by the fact that they were wiped out by a prehistoric robot uprising. Clearly, they colonized Mars, and but were then wiped out again. By a robotic uprising.
