It is snowing on Mars

[Ender]

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PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, processes that occur on Earth.

A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the spacecraft's landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground.

"Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground."

Phoenix experiments also yielded clues pointing to calcium carbonate, the main composition of chalk, and particles that could be clay. Most carbonates and clays on Earth form only in the presence of liquid water.

"We are still collecting data and have lots of analysis ahead, but we are making good progress on the big questions we set out for ourselves," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Since landing on May 25, Phoenix already has confirmed that a hard subsurface layer at its far-northern site contains water-ice. Determining whether that ice ever thaws would help answer whether the environment there has been favorable for life, a key aim of the mission.

The evidence for calcium carbonate in soil samples from trenches dug by the Phoenix robotic arm comes from two laboratory instruments called the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, or TEGA, and the wet chemistry laboratory of the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA.

"We have found carbonate," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the TEGA. "This points toward episodes of interaction with water in the past."

The TEGA evidence for calcium carbonate came from a high-temperature release of carbon dioxide from soil samples. The temperature of the release matches a temperature known to decompose calcium carbonate and release carbon dioxide gas, which was identified by the instrument's mass spectrometer.

The MECA evidence came from a buffering effect characteristic of calcium carbonate assessed in wet chemistry analysis of the soil. The measured concentration of calcium was exactly what would be expected for a solution buffered by calcium carbonate.

Both TEGA, and the microscopy part of MECA, have turned up hints of a clay-like substance. "We are seeing smooth-surfaced, platy particles with the atomic-force microscope, not inconsistent with the appearance of clay particles," said Michael Hecht, MECA lead scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The Phoenix mission, originally planned for three months on Mars, now is in its fifth month. However, it faces a decline in solar energy that is expected to curtail and then end the lander's activities before the end of the year. Before power ceases, the Phoenix team will attempt to activate a microphone on the lander to possibly capture sounds on Mars.

"For nearly three months after landing, the sun never went below the horizon at our landing site," said Barry Goldstein, JPL Phoenix project manager. "Now it is gone for more than four hours each night, and the output from our solar panels is dropping each week. Before the end of October, there won't be enough energy to keep using the robotic arm."

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona. Project management is the responsibility of JPL with development partnership by Lockheed Martin in Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

That's supremely awesome.

[Academia Nut]

I believe this deserves a "FUCK YEAH!" Snow on Mars, and the presence of carbonates. The possibility of finding extraterrestrial life on Mars in the past (or now!) grows better every year it seems.

[FireNexus]

I wonder if all the martians are buying up all the bread and milk now?

[A Social Democrat]

That brings to mind one thing, SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS MARS, the worst movie ever (well nearly). But it is interesting that mars is snowing, because it means that their is water vapour in the atmosphere of mars which of course means that we don't have to do as much work when we terraform it.

[Kanastrous]

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

With Pia Zadora, nach.

[Gil Hamilton]

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

With Pia Zadora, nach.

HAH! We watched this at Bad Movie Night once.

[Invictus ChiKen]

Hot damn! This is the awesome and I agree it deserves a FUCK YEAH!

So does this mean there's a chance we can introduce simple plant life sometime soon? I've always had the feeling terraforming would be down at first by unmanned probes to begin with.

[PeZook]

Holy shit, the Phoenix is still operating?

Christ, you guys know how to build a remote probe

[Mayabird]

Holy shit, the Phoenix is still operating?

Christ, you guys know how to build a remote probe

Pfft, that's nothing. Spirit and Opportunity are still going strong four years in.

Invictus - note that the snow isn't reaching the ground. I doubt we'd be able to introduce anything "soon" unless someone already has some specially genetically engineered organisms ready to go.

[Zac Naloen]

Presumably we'd just be sending Algae over at this stage, what kind of modification would it take to get the hardiest of Earths algae ready for Mars?


Cold weather is a given, but what else...?

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Holy shit, the Phoenix is still operating?

Christ, you guys know how to build a remote probe :D

It landed in May, and isn't expected to last past the end of November. This is nothing. As has been pointed out, the Mars Exploration Rovers have been on Mars for over four years, and the Viking 1 lander lasted for six years.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Presumably we'd just be sending Algae over at this stage, what kind of modification would it take to get the hardiest of Earths algae ready for Mars?

Cold weather is a given, but what else...?

Low oxygen, low air pressure, very alkaline soil, lots of radiation, minimal water in the atmosphere... and high winds.

[A Social Democrat]

Low oxygen, low air pressure, very alkaline soil, lots of radiation, minimal water in the atmosphere... and high winds.

What about more frequent meteor, asteroid, etc collisions, less air means less things get burnt up.

[Sarevok]

Low oxygen, low air pressure, very alkaline soil, lots of radiation, minimal water in the atmosphere... and high winds.

What about more frequent meteor, asteroid, etc collisions, less air means less things get burnt up.

I think the threat from falling rocks is a very minor concern compared to being frozen, irradiated, choked, starved etc. Anything that survives and thrives on a place as harsh as Mars would barely be affected by the rare incidents asteroid impacts.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Presumably we'd just be sending Algae over at this stage, what kind of modification would it take to get the hardiest of Earths algae ready for Mars?


Cold weather is a given, but what else...?

As has been mentioned, the extremely thin atmosphere (1/167th the surface air pressure of Earth) which also means high radiation environment and huge temperature swings. (Sixty degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) from high to low over the course of the day at 'temperate' latitudes.) At the poles, it gets so cold during the winter that the very Martian air freezes out onto the polar ice caps. There's also the fact that many Martian soils seem to be extremely alkaline. On top of all that, the soil gets lofted up into the air at the slightest provocation. The clearest days on Mars rival the most smoggy, hazy days in the most densely populated, highly-polluted cities on Earth. Under the frequent dust storms, the amount of sunlight available for our putative organisms to photosynthesize would be extremely low.

Of course, there are species of microorganisms capable of surviving all that. You could, conceivably, engineer a sort of algae that would survive on Mars and possibly thrive.