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Originally Posted by djellison
They don't say it's a flowing feature - they're saying that this is a pool - and even describe it as on a crater floor. The first is impossible on the slope here - the second is an outright lie.
Then - they also say that it is absolutely flat - but without features to derive topography - self contradictory. Myself and a few others had to double check this wasn't an april fool it's so full of holes.
Some fluids might exist transiently on the surface - but this isn't it and they just after tabloid hype with the nonsense in their 'paper'.
Doug
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I quite agree, this is really shonky journalism.
First, it has been suspected for decades that ephemeral moisture is present on the surface of Mars. Plus of course the evidence of rescent episodic fluid flow. So the news of this story isn't really news.
Second, the image choice used to illustrate the story is verging on the dishonest. It looks like puddles of blue water. However, the image is of gutters on the wall of Endurance crater which slope at 20-30 degrees. Water will not puddle on slopes. Second the blue is false colour, the bluest parts of the image are in fact due to haematite.
Either of the authors have aby real expertise in planetary science, nor are they publishing in a planetary science journal but in an engineering one. This does not mean that they are wrong, but does mean that the competence of authors and the quality of the peer review must be treated with caution.
The only real news is that is this yet another claim by Ron Levin who seems determined to vindicate his father's claims about Mars. Gil Levin did great work on deleoping life detection experiments in the 60's that culimated in the Viking mission, But he has over the years become increasinglyt strident in asserting that his experimental results were not simply consistent with biology, but were definitely due to biology. He further more has been associated with the blue sky and green rocks on Mars crows and associated claims of NASA cover ups, and with the campaign against Mars sample return.
Jon