The Other Shoe: The Mars Report

Recurring 'Lineae' on Slopes at Hale Crater, Mars

Welcome back My Dear Shoevians to The Other Shoe. Today I start this edition of ‘The Mars Report’ with the ‘Holy Grail’ of extraterrestrial exploration, water. Essential to all life, the birthplace of mankind, and (until recently) never before found outside the surface of earth. That all changed on September 28^th, 2015 with the announcement of a discovery on the Martian surface. Since early in the life of the Curiosity rover, there had been speculation and observations of other liquids. However, with the image, below, all speculation ended with a single discovery.
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Recurring 'Lineae' on Slopes at Hale Crater, Mars

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(Recurring 'Lineae' on Slopes at Hale Crater, Mars)

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That, My Dear Shoevians, is most certainly the single most famous image of modern science. Published around the world, late last month, this is the image that has ended the search for the ‘Holy Grail’ of extraterrestrial exploration. Now, this image is rather difficult to navigate for the average reader, or Shoevian. . The dark narrow streaks that we see, left of center, in this image are “inferred” to be formed by“Seasonal flow of water on contemporary Mars.” This is not flowing water like here on earth. This is a “briny liquid water” heavy with hydrated salts. It is these hydrated salts that brought NASA’s attention to this flow, and others found on the Martian surface. It is thought that during the winter months (occurring now) on Mars moisture in the thin atmosphere collects and solidifies on the upward sides of these slopes. As the Martian surface heats, the briny liquid water flows down slopes, like those seen in this image. This is only one example of the briny liquid water flows on the Martian surface. . Now, as for the how this image was made? Let me quote the NASA/JPL web site for their expert explanation.
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“The image was produced by first creating a 3-D computer model (a digital terrain map) of the area based on stereo information from two HiRISE observations, and then draping a false-color image over the land-shape model. The vertical dimension is exaggerated by a factor of 1.5 compared to horizontal dimensions. The camera records brightness in three wavelength bands: infrared, red and blue-green. The draped image is one product from HiRISE observation ESP_03070_1440.”[2]
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Now, as a special added treat, My Dear Shoevians, I have a short animation of this discovery as provided by NASA/JPL below.
Enjoy!
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Animation of Site of Seasonal Flows in Hale Crater, Mars

The image, above, is made with a process called ‘false color’. If you are a regular Shoevian then you are familiar with this process of image enhancement. Our next image is of the very same process of briny liquid water taken at Horowitz Crater, without the image enhancements.
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Recurring "Lineae" on Slopes at Horowitz Crater

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(Recurring "Lineae" on Slopes at Horowitz Crater)

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MY Dear Shoevians, this discovery is the single most important scientific discovery of mankind. With the presence of liquid water, comes the distinct possibility of the formation of life. The possibility of life existing on the surface of another planetary body in our solar system is nothing short of incredible. Now, My Dear Shoevians, aside from the implications of life of another planetary body within our own solar system (as if that is not enough) liquid water on the Martian surface gives us the opportunity of a gas station in space! . By breaking down liquid water into its component hydrogen and oxygen, then pressurizing said gases into a liquid form yields liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (LOX). As well, the oxygen can be used for breathing by the astronauts and water… well, to drink! . Now, for any still remaining nay Sayers I give you the following image, captured at the Kimberly Formation at the base of Mount Sharp.
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NASA's Curiosity Rover Team Confirms Ancient Lakes on Mars

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(NASA's Curiosity Rover Team Confirms Ancient Lakes on Mars)

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Well, My Dear Shoevians, I am pretty darn good with words. However, when it comes to explaining the above captioned image, I am going to leave this one image to the experts at NASA/JPL.
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“A new study from the team behind NASA's Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity has confirmed that Mars was once, billions of years ago, capable of storing water in lakes over an extended period of time. Using data from the Curiosity rover, the team has determined that, long ago, water helped deposit sediment into Gale Crater, where the rover landed more than three years ago. The sediment deposited as layers that formed the foundation for Mount Sharp, the mountain found in the middle of the crater today. "Observations from the rover suggest that a series of long-lived streams and lakes existed at some point between about 3.8 to 3.3 billion years ago, delivering sediment that slowly built up the lower layers of Mount Sharp," said Ashwin Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and co-author of the new Science article to be published Friday, Oct. 9.”[5]
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Well, My Dear Shoevians, I have reached the very limit of my endurance to my pain… today. I had really wanted to share another ‘Gargantuan’ edition of ‘The Mars Report’ for all of your today. However, I simply am not going to push myself and be in pain for days and days to come. I hope to write, and publish, an all new edition of ‘Lost in Space’ later this week. There are still tons of great images, I have put aside, from the Chandra X-Ray Telescope for future editions. I hope to share some more of these, later on this week. . I would like to extend my thanks to all of you, My Dear Shoevians, for dropping by today. For taking the time to revel in the scientific discovery of the ‘Holy Grail’ on the Martian surface. I know that I have been greatly absent, from these pages. I hope to change that reality and appear here on a more and more frequent basis. I do love to write, love to share my discoveries, and love to publish. But for my disabilities, my pain and growing physical limitations, I would be here every single day!
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Adieu!
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Thank you!
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