Spacey Monday: Finally, We Have Water!

NASA scientists have confirmed that the Phoenix lander exploring Mars has found on the planet after analysis of a surface soil sample.  The discovery was made after the lander’s robotic arm delivered a sample this week to an instrument (Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer) on-board the lander that identifies the resulting vapors by heating samples.

The Phoenix using its mechanical probe to dig out some ice for analysis.

 NASA officials also said that the Phoenix’s mission had been extended until the end of September as a result of its success.  The lander dug a number of small holes into Martian soil after touching down near the planet’s north pole on May 25, revealing a white substance that scientists have now confirmed as ice.  Although evidence for water ice was often speculated from observations made by the Mars Odyssey orbiter, this is the first confirmed collection of water on the Red Planet. 

The ice scooped up by Phoenix’s robotic digging arm is being analyzed to see if conditions on Mars could have supported life.  The detection of water suggests that there were in fact materials at one point in time that were the basic ingredients needed to “create” and support life.  Despite important nutrients including sodium, potassium and magnesium had been discovered, no organic materials had been found as of now.

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Spacey Monday: Two Times the Fun

NASA scientists plan to test out the process of shaving and collecting ice on the Phoenix, the Mars lander.  The first test was conducted on July 15.  The scrapings are being taken from a 5-centimeter deep hole informally known as Snow White.

A Color Photograph of “Snow White”

 The ice scrapings will be placed into a tiny oven in the lander’s Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, which heats up samples of Martian dirt and analyzes the vapors they give off.  Mission team members hope that  analysis of the ice samples will show that they are rich in water ice, which aids the argument that there still may be life on the red planet.  The mission is not to detect microbes, but to discover if the environment is suitable for them; water is a natural necessity.

The sample for the TEGA instrument will also be taken from this same trench. Mission controllers hope to collect and deliver the sample quickly and early in the Martian morning to minimize the amount of ice lost to sublimation, the process of solid (ice) going directly into a gaseous phase.

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Spacey Monday: Mars Life on the Rocks

Scientists’ analysis of images from NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has them nearly completely convinced of there being ice near the Red Planet’s northern pole.

Small pieces of a bright material “have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander four days ago,” according to NASA.  This is consistent with the theory that the white material was ice that vaporized when Phoenix exposed it to the atmosphere.  There had been some question whether the bright material was salt, but this new information disproves the salt theory. 

The Possible Ice Found in the Phoenix’s Print

The bright bits of material were left in a pit scientists dubbed “Dodo-Goldilocks” and were not there when the lander took a new later image of the trench.  If you live under a rock and don’t already know, the three-month Phoenix mission is hoping to find evidence of the existence of water and life-supporting organic minerals in the polar region.

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Eco-Saturday: Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye?

According to the Canadian Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife, the polar bear is not endangered or threatened with extinction due to increasing temperatures from global warming.  The committee did, however, begin a plan to protect the animals, whose numbers have been decreasing by around 22 percent.  They are currently listed as “special concern,” the lowest threatened level.

This Polar Bear Mother Leading her Cubs Across the Thinning Sea Ice May be a Rare Sight

Canada is home to around 15,500 polar bears, which accounts for about two-thirds of the global population.  Because summer sea ice is receding more and more each year, the population is declining.   Over-hunting and the oil industry have also hurt the numbers of the world’s largest land carnivore.  If current models hold true, half of the world’s polar bears will disappear by 2050. 

If the bear becomes, “threatened,” there would be bans on hunting or destroying the habitats of the animals.  This, of course, would not be applied to the native Inuit people.   The committee also called for tougher action to combat global warming as well.

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The End of the World as We Know It: But I Don’t Feel Fine About It

The Arctic ice always recedes in the summer and spreads during the winter.  However, last year’s recession was alarming: “By September, the ice cover had declined from its previous low, in 2005, by an area larger than Texas and California combined.  The amount of ice in the Arctic has been steadily receding.  In 1979 the ice had an area of 2.78 million square miles.  Last year, it was only a surprisingly low 1.65 million square miles.  It decreased around 44% during the late 19th century.  This research has shown that the melt of the Arctic is happening more rapidly than previously though.  By using computer models, several scientific organizations place the year of the demise of the northern ice cap to be in 1913 at this point.  But no, global warming is a myth, right, now go shovel that rain!

The Effects of Global Warming in the Arctic

The Antarctic is not faring much better.  Just recently, ac hunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan island suddenly collapsed into the ocean.  Satellite images show the destruction of a 160 square mile chunk of ice.  It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and used to be there for hundreds, maybe up to 1,500 years.  This is the result of man-made global warming, said British Antarctic Survey and numerous other global scientific agencies.  The rest of the ice shelf, which is about the size of the state of Connecticut, is being held to the mainland by a thin piece of ice and is in severe danger of collapse.  Scientists predicted that the Wilkins shelf would collapse in around 15 years from now, so this too is ahead of schedule.

A site to help you debunk global warming skeptics: http://illconsidered.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-to-talk-to-global-warming-sceptic.html

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