Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich surmises that the stream was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep.
The stream bed is composed of conglomerate rocks, which are rocks made up of different sized gravel cemented together into a layer of material. This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars, stated Dietrich.
Many of the stones in the conglomerate are rounded. This indicates long-distance flows that continued or repeated over a long time, not just once or for a few years.
The gravels range in size from a grain of sand to a golf ball, with many rounded stones in the mix. It is this size and shape that they WERE moved and are to big to be moved by the wind.
The complete article can be read on NASA.GOV
7 comments:
The waters of mars.
Okay, couldn't resist shoving the Doctor in there real quick.
I used to be half joking when I told people with all seriousness that there hadn't been life on mars for a few million years.
Maybe I wasn't joking after all. Maybe once there was life there, of some sort.
Wouldn't it be a real trip if they actually found a fossil of something large there. Large meaning at least 3 feet. I wonder about something though. Would they tell us if they did?
oh you bet your ass they would! Look at what happened when then found what they thought were microbes in a Martian rock that was uncovered in the arctic. They gave it to Clinton who could not WAIT to get that on national tv! Oh yeah, it would be all over the news!
True. But what if we don't have an open president at that time. Remember the suppression laws that someone wanted in effect.
And there is this big concern that if life is discovered on another planet, society will collapse because of the religious repercussions.
Okay, don't ask me about that one, I have no idea how they come up with that stuff.
Personally, I think that now in the 21st century, people can handle it without freaking out.
I mean, in the days of Jules Vern even, they would have been able to handle it. Now that sci-fi is so wide spread, and the ancient alien stuff, the microbes, I am sure it would not cause the great collapse.
But we also know that there would be problems there.
I read an article awhile back that I didn't bring here for obvious reasons. It was about whether we should take religion to another species if we find them out there somewhere.
I stayed out of that comment section, for reasons I am sure you all know by now with me. Not to mention that was something that scared me silly when I thought about it a long time ago.
No, I don't think they would freak out any more than they did when they found that "separate" race of homo sap a few months ago. But look at how people react when you say that a low land gorilla named Coco can carry on a conversation or an African grey parrot can reason on the same level as a two year old child and they go nuts. It will be when we no only find life but intelligent life that people will swallow their tongues when one suggests that these beings are "people"..... a veritable fan and solid waste storm...
Can you imagine if we found an intelligent species of lets say Insectoid life.
Melt down. Guaranteed. You know, I honestly and truly hope, that if we ever do make real contact, that they first contact the sci-fi anime freaks.
If they openly contacted on a world wide scale to the governments etc, I have a feeling things may not go well.
Kind of brings to mind Childhoods end actually. Only problem there, our governments would probably open fire if they didn't respond in what is considered a legitimate amount of time.
Governments aren't the brightest on the planet. While we'd be nervous, but wanting to talk and see, they'd be paranoid and of course the first reaction to the unknown is to arm up.
Yeah, without a doubt we should make a move to make sure that never happens. Seriously, we should. Might be the only chance we have in that situation. People willing to listen first there, and fire second if needed only.
Though to be honest, I'm probably not the man for that. My response would be pretty simple.
"Hey, you finally made it. Awesome. Lets pick up my books and gear and get out of here."
Yeah, I'm definitely not the guy.
you know it is fun to imagine alternative life, but nature is nature. There is a reason that planets are globes...There is a reason that most of the life forms on earth have the same basic layout...Now yes, we have insects that are not going by the plan but you see them now at the peak of their evolution. The design works, but only if you keep to relatively small. You are going to find variation on the humanoid theme because it is efficient in a wide variety of environments. I am willing to bet that warm blooded and probably iron based....
I'm almost willing to bet that anything warm blooded will be humanoid in some form as well. At least with what we understand at the moment anyway.
Never could quite figure out how life forms that were basically slugs could ever build anything that was very technologically advanced. That's one of the reasons I stick with humanoids for space fairing races in the game usually as well.
The others are out there, but I never have them too advanced. I have enough problems with gamers, I don't need to try and figure all that out as well.
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