Study points to cold, wet Mars past

[Forkboy]

LONDON - Mars might have once been both cold and wet, researchers said yesterday , suggesting a freezing Martian landscape could still have produced water needed to sustain life.

There has been debate over the issue because with some researchers believing water likely formed many features of the planet's landscape and others pointing to evidence indicating that early Mars was cold with temperatures well below the freezing point of water.

Using a computer model, Alberto Fairen of Universidad Autonoma in Madrid and colleagues showed that both could have been possible because fluids containing dissolved minerals would have remained liquid at temperatures well below 273 degrees Kelvin, the freezing point of pure water.

The presence of water on Mars is a hot topic for scientists. They have presented strong evidence of huge deposits of frozen water at the Martian poles and point to geological features that indicate large bodies of water have flowed on the planet's surface in the distant past.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/05/21/study_points_to_cold_wet_mars_past/

[moggie]

1. Minor niggle

The unit of temperature is the Kelvin, not "degrees Kelvin". The "degrees Kelvin" convention was dropped forty years ago!

[Forkboy]

2. Hell, I figure it's a plus that a paper even has any science news, period.

:)

[joshcryer]

3. It's probable that because it came out of London that they're using different conventions.

Or they may be a problem with the translation.

Or it could just be sloppy journalism. :P

[moggie]

4. Don't see what London has to do with it

I'm typing this in London, BTW. Scientists here use SI units; if one says "degrees Kelvin" it's more likely to be an age thing than a geographical thing.

[joshcryer]

6. I expect unusual conventions from Brits.

"I went to hospital last night for my sprain," etc.

[Butch350]

5. Why don't you discuss the subject of the post?

[joshcryer]

7. I've suspected that Mars had a wet past, but the cold bit gets to me.

I always, with some bias, felt that it was covered in an ocean, with a warm atmosphere. Unfortunately the link is very short on details and I don't see where to find the actual study / paper.

Check this out: http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=7697

[Forkboy]

8. I didn't have anything to say.

:shrug:

My mind was mostly on the music I was listening to at the time of posting. I'd rather discuss that, but this didn't seem the place. :)