Starship Asterisk*

I hate to say "I told you so"... oh, wait a minute- no, I don't. Here is a wonderful quote from the Phoenix mission: "This soil appears to be a close analog to surface soils found in the upper dry valleys in Antarctica," Kounaves said. "The alkalinity of the soil at this loc...

I a mont dismissing the possibilty of a water/peroxide chemistry for an organism at all. I am rejecting the idea that any significant amount of peroxide exists in the soil based on the clear evidence of the chemistry and the soil analysis. NASA and many scientists reject the labeled release experime...

I still find it very interesting that NASA scientists support the peroxide myth, to the point of claiming that Gil Levin's experiment on Viking was flawed because of the presence of peroxide. NASA most definitely knows that peroxides cannot exist on Mars, yet they remain silent when other scientists...

This still irks me- NASA has released the soil analysis and the soil is loaded with iron oxides and iron sulfate salts. Anybody who knows what "incompatible chemicals" are can tell you with no more than a look at the MSDS sheet that hydrogen peroxide is not compatible with iron sulfate and...

For Harry_h: The moon is typically very gray and is the color of asphalt. While there are deposits of stones of many colors, for the most part gray dominates. There are stretches of orange colored soil and yellowish soil, and even a patch of pale greenish soil has been reported. Samples of all were...

You are correct; these are sedimentary rocks. They are layers of gypsum (calcium sulfate) with alternating layers of extremely fine silicate particles (diatom shells). NASA is saying that the silicates are from hot springs but let's face it- hot springs did not periodically inundate the whole of the...

Although they imaged this in L2-L5-L7, they still could have adjusted the color to pretty accurately represent the calibration fixture for the visible spectrum. L2 is not visible to the human eye except when it is the only light present (and you are well adapted to the dark) because it is actually n...

I also thought this might be a water droplet some time back. I found many images of the droplets over the whole mission and they were unchanged. They all look like clear epoxy adhesive, and it is easy to see that water or ice would not last for years under the heat that is present during some of the...

Air temperatures can be pretty extreme, with the most quoted range being from -20C to -60C. But the air is so thin that is acts like an insulator, not conducting the heat the way it does on Earth. Ground temperatures are measured from -20C to +35C, and considering the huge load of salts present, the...

Given the size and mass for this planet, we can see that it would have about 2.2 times our surface gravity. This would mean that it can still hold a thick atmosphere in all likelihood, even if it were an old world. It also probably has a large core and would have volcanic activity that would replace...

Present day hydrology on Mars is mostly from geysers and sand boils, given this evidence. But take note of the fact that the water is not boiling away. This is mud. The soil is wet at this moment. The environment for microbial life is still intact and many other organisms might survive just below th...

Here is a picture of a geyser on Mars. This is a cross-eyed stereo view. Look at the slots and the flow patterns in the soil. This is not created by wind. This is also not billions of years old. It cannot be more than a decade old in any event, because it would have been covered by dust and sand. ht...

Again, you make the most basic assumption- because you were told it did not rain on Mars, you have stuck to this opinion as if it were a fact. Prove it. Just because some other scientists said it did not rain, does not mean that is so. It is their pure, unadulterated opinion that you are fostering.

This is absolutely correct- we can only see the shape of the remaining cast, not determine what formed it at all from a chemical standpoint. The latest microscopic images from Spirit show spherules that are most definitely not concretions, and now the rover team members are backing away from that ex...

Dr. Skeptic wrote: Sorry, your theory is based on your assumption that precipitation aided in the sedimentary striations - there is no evidence of rain, only evidence that it has never rained on Mars which I have covered before. No, you have not. You are doing nothing more than "this is so beca...

The "thicker layers" idea only holds if there was no rainfall or incoming water to dilute the salts. You have made one more assumption, and one with absolutely no data one way or the other. How about the fact that the spherules are not and never were concretions- if they were concretions f...

Dr. Skeptic wrote: I hope you don't believe that Calcium sulfate can only form from surface H2O or that wind erosion cannot create fine striated sedimentary rock. You always seem to arrive at some strange assumptions. What would lead you to think this? Calcium sulfate results from a chemical reactio...

This is all fine, but the visual evidence does not match what you claim. Short term seepage does not form the layering that is seen,nor does it create the alternating patterns of calcium sulfate and fine silica. This invalidates the opinions that you have posted. It takes long standing bodies of liq...

I have presented a large body of material supporting my contention; Meridiani is indeed a seabed. You have yet to substantiate a single flaw in my presentation. Be specific, stick to the material at hand. Explain away a single fact that we can observe from the image, such as: 1. Distinct geological ...

For BMAONE23 - The NASA rover site shows updates from March 18: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity.html The exploratorium site shows them also: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/ You may need to empty your cache and clean up your old temporary internet files. Sometimes windows doe...

So now we can add this to the already known reserves of water such as the glacier fields on the equator and the ice crystals in the dunes, and the ice under the soil extending for a kilometer or so... http://www.foxnews.com:80/story/0,2933,258989,00.html?sPage=fnc.science/space The more they look, t...

First excellent example is particle accelerators. Many particles have extremely short lifespans before they break down. When they are accelerated to nearly light speed, they last far longer. Time dilation is in fact being used to stretch their life spans to times when we can make observations, or al...

This sort of imaging artifact often shows up in synthetic aperture radar images. In all likelihood, that is what it is. It happens when the receiver gets a slightly lower power or out of phase signal for a while. If true, then the scalloped edges are caused by a phenomenon called beat frequency. Thi...

I read your bio, I saw a summary of your beliefs, and I do not see anything that even remotely touches on craters on Hyperion. You need to be very clear about your theory. Say something definite and understandable. I do not know you, and I have no experience with your opinions. My summary is simple-...

Okay, so I see a little about your beliefs, but I see nothing very clear about why you think of craters as damage rather than a natural part of what we see. We have observed impacts in the past, we have laboratory equipment that duplicates the processes involved in crater formation, and we can see (...