Temperature and pressure at Gale, Suitable (for short periods) for liquid water? |
Temperature and pressure at Gale, Suitable (for short periods) for liquid water? |
Sep 30 2012, 03:23 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 62 Joined: 11-July 11 Member No.: 6058 |
Just a quick query from someone with no background in science. Obviously, MSL has AFAIK not returned evidence of recent (i.e. years/decades) liquid water in its vicinity; however, I was interested by the following graphs:
08.21.2012: First Pressure Readings on Mars http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4501 08.21.2012: Taking Mars' Temperature http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4502 The first indicates that the pressure between 15 Aug and 18 Aug never dropped below c. 690 millibars; the second shows that, for a period of a couple of hours on 16 Aug, the temperature rose above freezing. If water had been present on the surface, then, would it have been liquid during this brief period? The pressure and temperature seemed to satisfy the conditions for liquid water as I understand them (indeed, the pressure seems to be high enough (just) on a 24-hour basis to allow for the presence of liquid water). Thanks in advance for your opinions (corroborative or not!) on this. |
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Mar 7 2013, 09:01 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1465 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Columbus OH USA Member No.: 13 |
It'll be interesting to compare to the calibrated results to see how involved that process is, or if it's just linear. One thing that strikes me is the frequent spikes/dips of up to about 10 degrees over a short period of time. Could these be "real"? Maybe warmer air from the RTG fins wafts over from time to time?
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Mar 8 2013, 03:25 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 279 Joined: 19-August 07 Member No.: 3299 |
It'll be interesting to compare to the calibrated results to see how involved that process is, or if it's just linear. One thing that strikes me is the frequent spikes/dips of up to about 10 degrees over a short period of time. Could these be "real"? Maybe warmer air from the RTG fins wafts over from time to time? Yes it is a good question since the mini-variations of temperature only occurs anything different than the sun's heat. |
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