Questions about Mars and Sun

[Reny]

hi everyone, i would like to ask

1) what's the white spot at the south of the Mars? Is that icy area?

 

2) The sun is green in colour, is it caputred by infrared mode?

thx:)

[SkepticLance]

Mars has two ice caps. North and south. Interestingly, they are currently shrinking. Global warming on Mars.

 

The 'green' colour of the sun would appear to be an artifact of the method of photography. The sun is not green.

[insane_alien]

the picture of the sun is somewhere in the X-ray part of the spectrum i believe the green colour is a product of the post capture image processing. skeptic lance said everything that needed to be said on the mars picture except that most of the ice is frozen CO2 but not without a considerable amount of water ice as well

[mooeypoo]

That actually raises a question..

 

What are the odds of finding anything resembling life (or life-supporting environment) in the Ice-Caps on mars? If it's frozen CO2 then slim, no?

[insane_alien]

mooey, the ice caps are not completely CO2 ice, there is still a lot of H2O the CO2 ice comes from the atmosphere freezing.

[Edtharan]

What is realy interesting is that they have found a lot of Methane on Mars. We curently know of only 2 ways that such a large amount of Methane can be produced:

1) Volcanism

2) Biological matter decaying

 

These can be seperated by comparing the ratios of carbon isotopes, but we will have to go ther and get a sample before we can do that.

 

Methane would take around 300 years to breakdown in Mars' atmosphere so what ever has cause this is either still around or was recently.

[mooeypoo]

About the samples -- do we have to get those samples back on earth for analysis or can the Mars Rover analyse them on-the-spot?

 

Sorry for asking stupid questions, but this is quite interresting and I know quite nothing about it

 

~moo

[insane_alien]

it could in theory be done on the spot, but adapting the equipment for working without a lot of power would be expensive. until we set up a base, we are going to have to rely on returning samples

[Psycho]

If the ice caps are mainly CO2 and H2O surely if mars warmed up and they melted it would cause a thicker atmosphere to form and therefore stabilise mars temperature more making it more inhabitable.

 

That is presuming there is enough to change the atmosphere.

[mooeypoo]

Wow, so it's going to take a while.

 

How long does it take to go from Earth to Mars? When are we expecting the Rover to come back?

 

And another question: If there actually is a 'global warming' effect on Mars that shrinks the polar caps and releases the gasses into the atmosphere - should we expect some kind of thin atmosphere on mars within the next millenia (or less?) or are those gasses being released completely to space..?

 

~moo

[[Tycho?]]

Wow' date=' so it's going to take a while.

 

How long does it take to go from Earth to Mars? When are we expecting the Rover to come back?

 

And another question: If there actually is a 'global warming' effect on Mars that shrinks the polar caps and releases the gasses into the atmosphere - should we expect some kind of thin atmosphere on mars within the next millenia (or less?) or are those gasses being released completely to space..?

 

~moo[/quote']

 

The rovers are never coming back.

 

Mars already has an atmosphere.

 

It will take probably 6 months to get to mars, this of course depends on where the planets are in their orbits, kind of propulsion, and stuff like that. Look up mars on wikipedia, there is lots of info on it there.