[X] My Assistant

[ElkGroveDan]

Dan, I think you've mistaken a part of sunlit soil in Phil's image as white stuff.

Agreed.

[ugordan]

Here's a flicker between sol 21 and 24 showing change (or, rather, lack of):


Ignore the color of the brightest part of the white stuff, it's overexposed. The small white chunk in sol 21 image appears to disappear in sol 24 (inset).

[hortonheardawho]

( briefly dropping out of lurking mode...)

As much as I hate to do so, I have to agree with silylene: the case for water-ice -- at least in the Goldilocks trench -- is "not proven".

Here is a sol 20-24 3D animation of the shadowed area in the trench.

I created it to see if I could see how much of the clumps remained after the "sublimation". Unfortunately even the NASA gif image drops out in the darkest part of the shadow -- where the most interesting clumps were. But if you look closely at the bright clumps that fade nearest the shadow edges I think you can see that the clumps do not completely disappear.

Even in the darkest shadow there appears to be "something" where the white clumps were -- so, yes, there may have been a dramatic change in the white clumps -- but perhaps no more so than the reductiion in the brightness parts of the top of the trench.

Yeah, I believe that it's water-ice but it's not yet scientifically proven.

I am still puzzled why the infrared spectrum from the left SSI camera has not been cited as supporting evidence for water-ice.

( jumping back into cyber-space...)

[marsbug]

Even in the darkest shadow there appears to be "something" where the white clumps were -- so, yes, there may have been a dramatic change in the white clumps -- but perhaps no more so than the reductiion in the brightness parts of the top of the trench.

Yeah, I believe that it's water-ice but it's not yet scientifically proven.

I am still puzzled why the infrared spectrum from the left SSI camera has not been cited as supporting evidence for water-ice.

I agree that this doesn't prove the case for water, and that hydrated salts are a possibility, but I just don't see what you do on the animation: There are a lot of changes that could be due to different shadowing or image artefacts, but I don't see any consistent outlines between the two frames, and the shadowing around the lumps looks to change as well. Is there any chance you could draw me some outlines to make it a bit clearer?

Go on drop out of cyberspace, the view from here is just as interesting!

Edit; ICE, I meant doesn't prove the case for ICE, please oh great god of woo don't strike me down!