Mars Landing tonight

Originally Posted by hi_im_god

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast05jan_1.htm

old article but still addresses the point. the existence of a liquid on mars at some point in the past is overwhelming and the likelihood it was anything but water miniscule.

sedimentary layers. outflow channels. don't forget that after this was written one of the rovers found carbonate formations that only form in the presence of liquid water.

Thanks for the article.
I was under the impression since mars has a smaller mass
it would not hold an atmosphere as "thick" as the earth.
It works like this on most other planets/bodies compared to the earth.

Damn I almost forgot. A couple of the moons around Saturn and jupiter show
clear signs that they are not dead "tectonic activity, hot insides" even though
they are small. Apparently it is thought that the gravity from the large planets
they exist next to pulls the heck out of the insides of these moons and somehow
creates heat. Keeps the molten stuff moving or some such idea.

And the heat I assumed would last longer from all the activity inside the earth just because it has more volume than Mars so it would not cool as quickly. I assumed it would be colder on the surface of Mars both because it is further away, but more importantly it has such a thin atmosphere it would not hold heat as well as the earth.

I am not an astronomy guy really. So thanks.