Unusual Object Photographed by the Phoenix Lander

Very neat, casting shadow too! Looks like one of th geyser Mr. Joseph P. Skipper found in other pictures. He’s got a great website found at www.MarsAnomalyResearch.com.

NASA Spacecraft Photographs Avalanches on Mars

Pasadena, Calif. – A NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars has taken the first ever image of active avalanches near the Red Planet’s north pole. The image shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down.

The High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photograph Feb. 19. It is one of approximately 2,400 HiRISE images being released today.

Ingrid Daubar Spitale of the University of Arizona, Tucson, who works on targeting the camera and has studied hundreds of HiRISE images, was the first person to notice the avalanches. “It really surprised me,” she said. “It’s great to see something so dynamic on Mars. A lot of what we see there hasn’t changed for millions of years.”

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(Full Article: http://www.nasa.gov)

ESA presents Mars in 3D

Mars is about to come into 3D focus as never before, thanks to the data from the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). A new high-resolution Digital Terrain Model data set that has just been released onto the Internet, will allow researchers to obtain new information about the Red Planet in 3D.

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(Full Article: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEM8Q2PR4CF_0.html)

NASA Mars Images Reveals a "Doorway" Structure

There is a strange door-like structure at the base of the mountain formation from a NASA image of Mars that is causing a stir. The first person to notice it wasn’t a NASA scientist, however, but rather a Russian reader of the portal R&D.Cnews, Alexander Novgorodov. Taking a closer look at an image taken by the spacecraft Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, he noticed an unusual morphology, which looks strikingly like a manmade doorway.

Of course, the object’s intriguing form does not denote the presence of a real doorway, nor would it imply that the mountain formation is of artificial origin. That would make an incredible story indeed, but the likely cause it boring old weather erosion. However, the peculiarities are of interest due to their unique morphology.

The unusual teardrop mountain formation, which likely resulted from some sort of weathering, is located amid Mar’s frozen ocean region.

A planet of extremes, Mars is home to the largest mountain in the solar system, the largest canyon in the solar system and intensely severe dust storms. It is also home to the only other likely option for humans to live within our Solar System.

According to astrophysicist Charlie Lineweaver of Australian National University, “ever since the first telescope was invented and we learnt that there are other worlds out there, people have dreamed of going to them. Of course we now know that Mars is the only other planet in the solar system you’d want to set foot on.”

Physicist Rod Boswell says getting people there isn’t the real problem. “There is no doubt you could get people to Mars. Whether you get them back again is a debatable point.”

But some argue that Mars could someday be humankind’s second home. But if there is ever going to be a real doorway on mars, we’ve got to figure out how to make Mars more hospitable. Many believe terraforming is the answer, and introducing plants that would create more oxygen that we humans love, would be a start.

“They’ve done some experiments and have noticed that some types of plants can grow under the low pressure CO2 atmosphere on Mars,” Lineweaver noted.

Terraforming is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying another planet or moon’s atmosphere, temperature, and/or ecology to be similar to those of Earth in order to make it habitable by humans. Although it would be an enormous challenge—if possible at all—many experts believe it is possible. Mars is considered by most to be the most likely candidate for terraformation. Already, a significant amount of study and discussion has gone into the possibility of heating the planet and altering its atmosphere, including NASA hosted debates on the subject.

(Source: http://www.dailygalaxy.com)

Mars Spirit Rover: UFO and Large Mirror Symmetrical Objects

After talking with a Mars Specialist, I added this note to warn people that this might be faked or image tempering. The fact that the post was removed from the original site tells us long about this as well.

I’ll leave this here for reference, but keep in might that this might be false information.

This is an interesting image sent in by a reader who has identified their selves by the name Zoo. Here is the image resized larger.

After seeing the image and the Rover tracks, and looking further into tracking down the data I was able to find this new raw image posted as of 10/03/07 from the Mars Spirit Rover Rear Hazcam of Sol 1332, which seemed to show more details.

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov

There are regular, somewhat evenly placed objects lined up on the top of the hill, and in front what looks like large symmetrical shaped formations. Closer images are needed to determine more of what they actually are.

…

(Source + Images: http://www.ufoarea.com)

Martian Southern Cap is Mostly Water Ice

Written by Fraser Cain

I’ll warn you right now, it’s raining Mars news today. Take cover. First up, we’ve got this interesting story. Planetary scientists at MIT have estimated that Mars’ southern pole contains the largest quantity of frozen water in the inner solar system (apart from the Earth, of course). Many people believed that frozen carbon dioxide was the predominant substance in the south pole’s cap, but nope, it’s water.

The research was led by Maria Zuber, MIT professor of geophysics, and the lead investigator for gravity for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The project is funded by the NASA Mars Program.

Scientists have long suspected that the Martian southern pole was mostly ice and dust, covered by a thin coating of carbon dioxide, but they didn’t have a firm estimate. Zuber and her colleagues used topographical and gravitational data by three Mars spacecraft to find the volume and mass of the ice cap.

Once they had the volume and mass, they were able to calculate the density. The density of water ice is 1,000 kg per cubic metre, while the density of solid carbon dioxide (aka dry ice) is 1,600 kg per cubic metre. Their estimates calculated that the Martian southern pole is about 1,220 kg per cubic metre. That indicates that it’s mostly water, with about 15% silicate dust mixed in.

This makes the southern polar region of Mars the largest body of water in the inner solar system, outside of the Earth. Just in case that’s not clear, we’re talking about Mercury, Venus and Mars.

One thing that’s still puzzling astronomers is the fact that the polar cap doesn’t reflect as much as you would expect from a coating of ice. It’s believed that the silicate dust mixed in dulls down the cap’s reflectivity.

Zuber and her team are planning to estimate the northern polar cap.

(Source: http://www.universetoday.com)

Cave entrances found on Mars

NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano. The find is fueling interest in potential underground habitats and sparking searches for caverns elsewhere on the Red Planet. Very dark, nearly circular features ranging in diameter from about 328 to 820 feet puzzled researchers who found them in images taken by NASA’s Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor orbiters. Using Mars Odyssey’s infrared camera to check the daytime and nighttime temperatures of the circles, scientists concluded that they could be windows into underground spaces.Evidence that the holes may be openings to cavernous spaces comes from the temperature differences detected from infrared images taken in the afternoon vs. the pre-dawn morning. From day to night, temperatures of the holes change only about one-third as much as the change in temperature of surrounding ground surface.

“They are cooler than the surrounding surface in the day and warmer at night,” said Glen Cushing of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Team and of Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Ariz. “Their thermal behavior is not as steady as large caves on Earth that often maintain a fairly constant temperature, but it is consistent with these being deep holes in the ground.”A report of this discovery by Cushing and his co-authors was published online recently by the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “Whether these are just deep vertical shafts or openings into spacious caverns, they are entries to the subsurface of Mars,” said co-author Tim Titus of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff. “Somewhere on Mars, caves might provide a protected niche for past or current life, or shelter for humans in the future.”

(Source: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/viewnews.php?id=106748)
(Other Important Link: www.MarsAnomalyResearch.com)

Is there an Interplanetary Mars-Earth Microbe Shuttle?

A little-known fact is that each year Earth is hit by by half a dozen or so one-pound or larger rocks that were blasted off the surface of Mars by large impacts and found their way into Earth-crossing orbits. Nearly 10% of all rocks blasted off into space from the Red Planet end up crashing into Earth.

This natural “interplanetary transportation system” begs a fascinating question: If primitive and nearly indestructible micro-organisms exist on a given planet, must they by definition as a natural act or nature, travel to their immediate solar-system neighbors?

Recent research on lunar rocks discovered in Antarctica has shown that rocks greater than 10 kilograms in mass could be ejected from terrestrial planets -rocks capable of carrying living microbes- and survive the searing violence of the launch.

Over the history of the Earth, billions of football-sized Mars rocks have landed on its surface, some only slightly heated by the launch, reaching Earth in a matter of a few months.

A year-ago March a study by a team of scientists at Oregon State University of a meteorite that originated from Mars revealed a series of microscopic tunnels that are similar in size, shape and distribution to tracks left on Earth rocks by feeding bacteria. Although the researchers were unable to extract DNA from the Martian rocks, the finding nonetheless adds intrigue to the search for life beyond Earth.

Martin Fisk, a professor of marine geology in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University and lead author of the study, said the discovery of the tiny burrows do not confirm that there is life on Mars, nor does the lack of DNA from the meteorite discount the possibility.

“Virtually all of the tunnel marks on Earth rocks that we have examined were the result of bacterial invasion,” Fisk said. “In every instance, we’ve been able to extract DNA from these Earth rocks, but we have not yet been able to do that with the Martian samples.

“There are two possible explanations,” he added. “One is that there is an abiotic way to create those tunnels in rock on Earth, and we just haven’t found it yet. The second possibility is that the tunnels on Martian rocks are indeed biological in nature, but the conditions are such on Mars that the DNA was not preserved.”

More than 30 meteorites that originated on Mars have been identified. These rocks from Mars have a unique chemical signature based on the gases trapped within. The noble gas trapped in glass in the meteorites serve as a “fingerprint” that matches the composition of the Maritian atmosphere measured by the Viking Mission spacecraft that landed on Mars in 1976. These rocks were “blasted off” the planet when Mars was struck by asteroids or comets and eventually these Martian meteorites crossed Earth’s orbit and plummeted to the ground.

One of these is Nakhla, which landed in Egypt in 1911, and provided the source material for Fisk’s study. Scientists have dated the igneous rock fragment from Nakhla – which weighs about 20 pounds – at 1.3 billion years in age. They believe that the rock was exposed to water about 600 million years ago, based on the age of clay found inside the rocks.

“It is commonly believed that water is a necessary ingredient for life,” Fisk said, “so if bacteria laid down the tunnels in the rock when the rock was wet, they may have died 600 million years ago. That may explain why we can’t find DNA – it is an organic compound that can break down.”

Fisk and his colleagues have spent more than 15 years studying microbes that can break down igneous rock and live in the obsidian-like volcanic glass. They first identified the bacteria through their signature tunnels then were able to extract DNA from the rock samples – which have been found in such diverse environments on Earth as below the ocean floor, in deserts and on dry mountaintops. They even found bacteria 4,000 feet below the surface in Hawaii that they reached by drilling through solid rock.

In all of these Earth rock samples that contain tunnels, the biological activity began at a fracture in the rock or the edge of a mineral where the water was present. Igneous rocks are initially sterile because they erupt at temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees C. – and life cannot establish itself until the rocks cool. Bacteria may be introduced into the rock via dust or water, Fisk pointed out.

“Several types of bacteria are capable of using the chemical energy of rocks as a food source,” he said. “One group of bacteria in particular is capable of getting all of its energy from chemicals alone, and one of the elements they use is iron – which typically comprises 5 to 10 percent of volcanic rock.”

Another group of OSU researchers, led by microbiologist Stephen Giovannoni, has collected rocks from the deep ocean and begun developing cultures to see if they can replicate the rock-eating bacteria. Similar environments usually produce similar strains of bacteria, Fisk said, with variable factors including temperature, pH levels, salt levels, and the presence of oxygen.

The igneous rocks from Mars are similar to many of those found on Earth, and virtually identical to those found in a handful of environments, including a volcanic field found in Canada.

One question the OSU researchers hope to answer is whether the bacteria begin devouring the rock as soon as they are introduced. Such a discovery would help them estimate when water – and possibly life – may have been introduced on Mars.

The Oregon State University College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences is internationally recognized for its faculty, research and facilities, including state-of-the-art computing infrastructure to support real-time ocean/atmosphere observation and prediction. The college is a leader in the study of the Earth as an integrated system, providing scientific understanding to address complex environmental challenges.

(Source: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/08/2006-being-held.html)

New Phoenix Mission Technology to Search for Mars Life

A new Mars spacecraft called Phoenix, parsed together largely from leftovers from one mission that failed and another that was canceled, is set for takeoff on Saturday from Cape Canaveral, and it could provide important answers to three burning questions questions: can the Martian arctic support life, what is the history of water at the landing site, and how is the Martian climate affected by polar dynamics?

To answer these questions, Phoenix uses some of the most sophisticated and advanced technology ever sent to Mars. A robust robotic arm built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory acts as a trenching tool that can dig down half a meter of ice into the dirt–far lower than the few centimeters of previous missions–and a grinding tool that can penetrate even superhard ice.

On the deck, miniature ovens and a mass spectrometer, built by the University of Arizona and University of Texas-Dallas, will provide chemical analysis of trace matter. A chemistry lab-in-a-box, assembled by JPL, will characterize the soil and ice chemistry. Imaging systems, designed by the University of Arizona, University of Neuchatel (Switzerland) providing an atomic force microscope that can see details as small as 200 nanometers–one-hundredth the diameter of a human hair; Max Planck Institute (Germany) and Malin Space Science Systems, will provide an unprecedented view of Mars—spanning 12 powers of 10 in scale. The Canadian Space Agency will deliver a meteorological station, the most advanced weather station yet sent to Mars, marking the first significant involvement of Canada in a Mars mission.

The microscopes are capable of revealing details of soil structure never even glimpsed before, which may help bring to light important details about the past geology and climate of the planet.

If there are organic chemicals lurking in that ice, Phoenix could discover their presence on Mars for the first time and learn a bit about the details of their composition using the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, or TEGA, a combination high-temperature furnace and mass spectrometer instrument that scientists will use to analyze martian ice and soil samples. The robotic arm will deliver samples to a hopper designed to feed a small amount of soil and ice into eight tiny ovens about the size of an ink cartridge in a ballpoint pen. Each of these ovens will be used only once to analyze eight unique ice and soil samples.

Once a sample is successfully received and sealed in an oven, the temperature is slowly increased at a constant rate, and the power required for heating is carefully and continuously monitored. This process, called scanning calorimetry, shows the transitions from solid to liquid to gas of the different materials in the sample: important information needed by scientists to understand the chemical character of the soil and ice.

With these precise measurement capabilities, scientists will be able to determine ratios of various isotopes of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, providing clues to origin of the volatile molecules, and possibly, biological processes that occurred in the past.

Organic molecules–any compounds containing carbon–constantly rain down on Mars, as they do on Earth, from meteors burning up in the atmosphere, which is why scientists were so startled when Viking didn’t find any. A new analysis last year suggests that that failure may have been because the Viking instrument didn’t heat its samples enough to detect certain kinds of “refractory” organics that might be there.

“If organics are present, we’ll detect them,” says Bill Boynton, a biochemist at the University of Arizona who led the team that developed the TEGA instrument. It works by putting a tiny scoop of soil into a chamber, sealing it shut, and then slowly heating it and measuring the vapors given off as the temperature rises all the way to 1,000 ºC.

The University of Arizona will also host the Phoenix Mission’s Science Operations Center (SOC) in its Tucson facility.

From the SOC, the Phoenix science and engineering teams will command the lander once it is safely landed on Mars, and also, receive data as it is transmitted directly to Earth. A payload interoperability test bed (PIT) will be located with the SOC to verify an optimal integration of Phoenix’s complex scientific instruments. Working together, the SOC and PIT will ensure a seamless scientific and engineering process—from science goal to instrument commands to down-linked and analyzed data.

(Source: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/08/new-technologie.html)

Climate catastrophes in the Solar System

The contrast: Venus, Earth and Mars

26 April 2007

Earth sits between two worlds that have been devastated by climate catastrophes. In the effort to combat global warming, our neighbours can provide valuable insights into the way climate catastrophes affect planets.

Modelling Earth’s climate to predict its future has assumed tremendous importance in the light of mankind’s influence on the atmosphere. The climate of our two neighbours is in stark contrast to that of our home planet, making data from ESA’s Venus Express and Mars Express invaluable to climate scientists.

Venus is a cloudy inferno whilst Mars is a frigid desert. As current concerns about global warming have now achieved widespread acceptance, pressure has increased on scientists to propose solutions.

The key weapon in a climate scientist’s arsenal is the climate model, a computer programme that uses the equations of physics to investigate the way in which Earth’s atmosphere works. The programme helps predict how the atmosphere might change in the future.

	“It seems that both Mars and Venus started out much more like Earth”

“To members of the public it must seem like climate models are crystal balls, but they are actually just complex equations” says David Grinspoon, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and one of Venus Express’s interdisciplinary scientists.

The more scientists look at those equations, the more they realise just how complicated Earth’s climate system is. Grinspoon puts the predicament like this: “In fifty or a hundred years, we will know whether today’s climate models were right but if they are wrong, by then it will be too late.”

To help increase confidence in the computer models, Grinspoon believes that scientists should look at our neighbouring planets. “It seems that both Mars and Venus started out much more like Earth and then changed. They both hold priceless climate information for Earth,” says Grinspoon.

The atmosphere of Venus is much thicker than Earth’s. Nevertheless, current climate models can reproduce its present temperature structure well. Now planetary scientists want to turn the clock back to understand why and how Venus changed from its former Earth-like conditions into the inferno of today.

Radiation from below the Venusian cloud deck

They believe that the planet experienced a runaway greenhouse effect as the Sun gradually heated up. Astronomers believe that the young Sun was dimmer than the present-day Sun by 30 percent. Over the last 4 thousand million years, it has gradually brightened. During this increase, Venus’s surface water evaporated and entered the atmosphere.

“Water vapour is a powerful greenhouse gas and it caused the planet to heat-up even more. This is turn caused more water to evaporate and led to a powerful positive feedback response known as the runaway greenhouse effect,” says Grinspoon.

As Earth warms in response to manmade pollution, it risks the same fate. Reconstructing the climate of the past on Venus can give scientists a better understanding of how close our planet is to such a catastrophe. However, determining when Venus passed the point of no return is not easy. That’s where ESA’s Venus Express comes in.

The spacecraft is in orbit around Venus collecting data that will help unlock the planet’s past. Venus is losing gas from its atmosphere, so Venus Express is measuring the rate of this loss and the composition of the gas being lost. It also watches the movement of clouds in the planet’s atmosphere. This reveals the way Venus responds to the absorption of sunlight, because the energy from the Sun provides the power that allows the atmosphere to move.

In addition, Venus Express is charting the amount and location of sulphur dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere. Sulphur dioxide is a greenhouse gas and is released by volcanoes on Venus.

	Fluvial surface features on Mangala Valles

“Understanding all of this will help us pin down when Venus lost its water,” says Grinspoon. That knowledge can feed into the interpretation of climate models on the Earth because although both planets seem very different now, the same laws of physics govern both worlds.

Understanding Mars’ past is equally important. ESA’s Mars Express is currently investigating the fate of the Red Planet. Smaller than the Earth, Mars is thought to have lost its atmosphere to space. When Martian volcanoes became extinct, so did the planet’s means of replenishing its atmosphere turning it into an almost-airless desert.

“What happened on these two worlds is different but would be disastrous for Earth”

“What happened on these two worlds is very different but either would be equally disastrous for Earth. We are banking on our ability to accurately predict Earth’s future climate,” says Grinspoon. Anything that can shed light on our own future is valuable. That is why the study of our neighbouring worlds is vital.

So, when planetary scientists talk of exploring other worlds, they are also increasing their ability to understand our own planet.

For more information:

David Grinspoon, Venus Express interdisciplinary Scientist and Curator of Astrobiology
Dept. of Space Sciences
Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Co. (USA)
Email: David.Grinspoon @ dmns.org

Håkan Svedhem, ESA Venus Express Project scientist
Email: Håkan.svedhem @ esa.int

(Source: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEM2EHMJC0F_2.html)

Russian probes – Phobos 1 and 2 video

Space pioneers wanted for 520-day Mars experiment

This is an amazing project, but what makes me sad is that we most likely have technology, hidden in black projects to skip all this non-sense and travel to mars in a couple hours, if not under one hour. What a waste of time, energy, money and lives we have to endure.

LE BOURGET, France (AFP) – The European Space Agency (ESA) on Tuesday called for applications for one of the most demanding human experiments in space history: a simulated trip to Mars in which six “astronauts” will spend 17 months in an isolation tank on Earth.

Their spaceship will comprise a series of interlocked modules in an research institute in Moscow, and once the doors are closed tight, the volunteers will be cut off from all contact with the outside world except by a delayed radio link.

They will face simulated emergencies, daily work routines and experiments, as well as boredom and, no doubt, personal friction from confinement in just 550 cubic metres (19,250 cubic feet), the equivalent of nine truck containers.

Communications with the simulated mission control and loved-ones will take up to 40 minutes, the time that a radio signal takes to cross the void between Earth and a spaceship on Mars. Food will comprise mainly the packaged stuff of the kind eaten aboard the
International Space Station (ISS).

The goal is to gain experience about the psychological challenges that a crew will face on a trip to Mars.

Four of the crew will be Russian, and two will come from countries that are members of ESA, agency and Russian officials said at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget.

In all, 12 European volunteers are needed.

A precursor 105-day study is scheduled to start by mid-2008, possibly followed by another 105-day study, before the full 520-day study begins in late 2008 or early 2009.

Backup for the two volunteers taking part in each of these simulations means that 12 Europeans are needed.

“The selection procedure is similar to that of ESA astronauts, although there will be more emphasis on psychological factors and stress resistance than on physical fitness,” ESA said in a press release.

Men and women who think they have the right stuff can download the application form on (http://www.spaceflight.esa.int).

The terrestrial Mars-stronauts will not get much glory for their confinement, nor will they get particularly rich.

They will get paid 120 euros (158 dollars) a day, said Marc Heppener of ESA’s Science and Application Division.

Viktor Baranov of Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems, where the experiment will take place, said his organisation had received about 150 applications, only 19 of which came from women.

“The problem is that it is very difficult to find healthy people for this kind of experiment,” he said.

Assuming that Mars and Earth are favourably aligned, with their closest distance of 56 million kilometres (35 million miles), it would take 250 days to get there, 30 days spent on site to conduct experiments and 240 days for the return, said Baranov.

A trip to Mars is not an early prospect. The United States has set plans to return to the Moon by 2018 and later head to Mars, but without setting a date.

The trip is fraught with many technical challenges, many of which are outranked by the question of keeping the crew healthy and sane.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com)

The Interactive Universe

Want to learn of the ultimate secret of the Universe? Are we alone, or one of millions if not billions of intelligent life forms in existence in throughout the cosmos? Don’t miss upcoming episodes of The Universe and the interactive companion website and video summaries on The History Channel.

The Universe is one of the most brillantly produced series in the history of public, or any other, television. History and science collide in this epic exploration of the Universe and its mysteries: “Robotic rovers give us eyes on the red rock of Mars–NASA probes slam into comets at hyper speed–deep-space telescopes capture violent images of the birth of stars and their collapse into black holes.”

Using cutting-edge computer graphics, this series brings the universe down to earth to show what life would be like on other planets, and to imagine what kind of life forms might evolve in alien atmospheres. Episodes examine how discoveries were made and the scientists and explorers who dared to venture into the uncharted territory of the universe.

It’s brilliant, and custom-made for the Galaxy audience.

Link

(Source: http://www.dailygalaxy.com)

Mars rover finds "puddles" on the planet’s surface

A new analysis of pictures taken by the exploration rover Opportunity reveals what appear to be small ponds of liquid water on the surface of Mars.
The report identifies specific spots that appear to have contained liquid water two years ago, when Opportunity was exploring a crater called Endurance. It is a highly controversial claim, as many scientists believe that liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars today because of the planet’s thin atmosphere.

If confirmed, the existence of such ponds would significantly boost the odds that living organisms could survive on or near the surface of Mars, says physicist Ron Levin, the report’s lead author, who works in advanced image processing at the aerospace company Lockheed Martin in Arizona.

Along with fellow Lockheed engineer Daniel Lyddy, Levin used images from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s website. The resulting stereoscopic reconstructions, made from paired images from the Opportunity rover’s twin cameras, show bluish features that look perfectly flat. The surfaces are so smooth that the computer could not find any surface details within those areas to match up between the two images.

…

(Full article: http://space.newscientist.com)

Mars rover finds "puddles" on the planet’s surface

A new analysis of pictures taken by the exploration rover Opportunity reveals what appear to be small ponds of liquid water on the surface of Mars.
The report identifies specific spots that appear to have contained liquid water two years ago, when Opportunity was exploring a crater called Endurance. It is a highly controversial claim, as many scientists believe that liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars today because of the planet’s thin atmosphere.

If confirmed, the existence of such ponds would significantly boost the odds that living organisms could survive on or near the surface of Mars, says physicist Ron Levin, the report’s lead author, who works in advanced image processing at the aerospace company Lockheed Martin in Arizona.

Along with fellow Lockheed engineer Daniel Lyddy, Levin used images from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s website. The resulting stereoscopic reconstructions, made from paired images from the Opportunity rover’s twin cameras, show bluish features that look perfectly flat. The surfaces are so smooth that the computer could not find any surface details within those areas to match up between the two images.

…

(Full article: http://space.newscientist.com)

Public Lecture – St-Paul University – Ottawa, Canada

Vinko Totic(www.HomeIsOm.com) will be hosting M. Lalancette lecture on March 1st 2007, at St-Paul University, in Ottawa, Canada.

M. Lalancette will be presenting the work of 2 very important organisations, CSETI and Disclosure Project.
He will also give a brief introduction on the UFO and ET Subjects.
-Various clips will be presented including:

• Disclosure Project ET/UFO credible witnesses, a few amongst the 500 that joined the Disclosure Project.
• Mars slide show.
• Some brief clips that show the work of Jose Escamilla – UFO: The greatest story ever denied.

The presentation will then be followed by the story of M. Lalancette trip to Mt Shasta, in California, to train with CSETI team led by Dr. Steven Greer.
Some of the aerial and ground sightings will be presented as well.

M. Lalancette hope that supporting CSETI and the Disclosure Project will bring awareness to the general public about hidden world politics, extraterrestrials and all these very poorly covered subjects in our society.

You can direct any specific questions by posting comments on this post.

For more details, check on the poster at the end of this blog.