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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#1
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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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Aug 17 2013, 08:28 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 105 Joined: 13-July 05 From: The Hague, NL Member No.: 434 |
I stand corrected.. Where I went too fast was in assuming that ground ice does not exist because it is not stable in the present time and that liquid water could thus only feature in transient events - measured in hours (as I read in Wikipedia) - with thermodynamics inexorably determining the final outcome.
Many thanks for the reference, Joe, I've now also read the article "On the possibility of liquid water on present-day Mars" by Mr. Haberle et al. I recommend everybody interested in the subject to look it up and read it. It also makes a strong case for further experiments - as brought up by Explorer1. |
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