Thursday, September 24, 2009

NASA: Orbiter spots ice in Martian meteor craters

Not that we can do anything about it With The Obama Administration , de-funding everything That has to do with Space research !


Computerworld - A NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars has spotted exposed ice in five different spots on the Red Planet.

After years of speculation and last year's intensive hunt for water and other elements that could support life, NASA scientists reported today that they've found frozen water just a few feet below the planet's surface.

"This ice is a relic of a more humid climate from perhaps just several thousand years ago," said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona, Tucson, during a press conference today.

NASA scientists said they found the exposed ice inside craters, caused by meteors slamming into the Red Planet last year. Scientific instruments onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found that the icy craters range from 1 1/2 to 8 feet deep.

The exposed ice first appeared as bright patches and then darkened in a matter of weeks as the ice vaporized in the Martian atmosphere.

"Craters tell us a lot about the object on which they occur," said Ken Edgett, a senior staff scientist at Malin Space Science Systems. "They're great probes of what lies beneath the surface."
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