Potentially habitable flow-like features from Martian dry ice geyser dune spots: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Flow-like-features detail.gif|thumb|Flow-like-features detail|Flow-like features on Dunes in Richardson Crater, Mars [http://www.google.co.uk/mars/#q=Richardson%20crater&zoom=2 (Richardson crater in Google Mars)]. They form around the dark dune spots, in the debris of the hypothesized [[Martian Geysers]]. The dark material at the end of the flows moves at between 0.1 and 1.4 m/day in late spring / summer on Mars. This example moves approximately 39 meters in 26 days between the last two frames.<br><br>The two main models involve liquid water - either interfacial layers, or else layers of water created through the solid state greenhouse effect. <ref name="MartínezRenno2013">{{cite journal|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11214-012-9956-3/fulltext.html|last1=Martínez|first1=G. M.|last2=Renno|first2=N. O.|title=Water and Brines on Mars: Current Evidence and Implications for MSL|journal=Space Science Reviews|volume=175|issue=1-4|year=2013|pages=29–51|issn=0038-6308|doi=10.1007/s11214-012-9956-3}}</ref><ref name=Kereszturi2008>Kereszturi, A., et al. [http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/1555.pdf "Analysis of possible interfacial water driven seepages on Mars"], Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Vol. 39. 2008.</ref><ref name="MartínezRenno2013">{{cite journal|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11214-012-9956-3/fulltext.html|last1=Martínez|first1=G. M.|last2=Renno|first2=N. O.|title=Water and Brines on Mars: Current Evidence and Implications for MSL|journal=Space Science Reviews|volume=175|issue=1-4|year=2013|pages=29–51|issn=0038-6308|doi=10.1007/s11214-012-9956-3}}</ref><br><br>Animation centered on {{coord|72.02|S|179.408|E|globe:Mars}} [http://www.google.co.uk/mars/#lat=-72.02&lon=179.408&zoom=7 (location in Google Mars)]. Displayed region 188.5 meters by 172 meters. Dates of sequence: 19 January (sol 396), 24 January (sol 401), 29 January (sol 406), 10 February (sol 418), and 09 March (sol 444), all in 2009. All taken between 4.10 pm and 4.28 pm in Mars local time.]]
 
These intriguing high latitude features are associated with the [[Geyser (Mars)|Martian Geysers]]. The geysers themselves (if that is what they are) are thought to be results of subsurface layers of dry ice turningheated toby the sun through the solid state greenhouse effect, and erupting as CO2 gas. The dark spots - which atlead oneto pointspeculations wereabout thought to beseasonal photosynthetic life in the early 2000s, are now thought to be the debris from the geysers.
However, later in the year the flow like features extend down the slopes from the dark spots, sometimes at a rate of meters per day. The details differ for the two hemispheres.