Mars and it's former oceans
Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:36 am
There is little doubt in my mind Mars supported a substantial ocean and a substantial biosphere in the past.
Some time ago I was browsing the MOLA (Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter)site and noticed they had published a very nice topographic map of the entire planet.
I dabble in graphical renderings using a 3D modler called Moray. It's a modeling program much like a CAD system that allows one to manufacture photorealistic 3D renders. One of the great features of Moray is that it supports a very nice hight field generator. Using a comparative scale of dark to light it projects a third axis to an otherwise flat picture or render, and makes a 3D image of said same by adding a Z axis and uplifting lighter portions, according to shading, dark being low and light high.
I thought the MOLA topographic would be an ideal candidate for this process and tried it.
As it turns out the color sceme of the MOLA topographic fit perfectly into the parameters for the hight field generator and it rendered a very nice 3D view of the entire surface of the planet.
By skewing the camera angle and observing the results, the "aparent" shoerlines of the former oceans became grossly visable, both by virtue of the above and below water level erosion slope, and the consistancy of that demarcation level planet wide. Having seen this same effect of below and above water erosion in the great basin of the western United States it was easy to spot.
So I decided to take the flat, full planet view, and place a plane in it at the aparent level of the former oceans. I also rendered it as a globe after putting the ocean in.
The results ,for me a rank amature, we astonishingly good.
Here is a link to several of the renders I have made and posted to my yahoo profile photo albums.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/eyecapita ... /my_photos
In it is a cutaway of the planet with oceans and a simulated "warm" core and one, in true color, as it is today with a cool planet core. Note that I only guestimated the cores and they don't represent anything near science. Call them and all of these "artists conceptions." I use the term "artist" loosely.
Following are several pictures of the Mars globe with it's former ocean, the third directly overhead of Meridiani Planum, with the Opportunity rover's location circled in red, the original MOLA topo, and the same cropped without and with ocean.
The final three are a low camera angle of the Meridiani landing site, looking north, with the ocean full and two with the water receding. The process of the water receding was simply to lower the ocean plane slightly and snap a still, so the progress of the water receding and the slope of meridiani must be fairly close to accurate.
The receding water frames were done such that they should represent a fairly acurate view of the slope at Meridiani and show it was indeed what could be called a "tidal zone" where the level was subject to change with the tides over a broad expanse. This area seems to be to be a perfect candidate for the type of sea life Sir Charles Shults III has outlined in his fossil pages at Xenotechresearch.
The final frame is a cross eyed stereo view of an object imaged by Opportunity's microscopic imager on sol 507. If this is not a fossil sand dollar I'm a blue nosed gopher.http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ ... 6M2M1.HTML That is the link to the artifact itself on nasa's raws page. You can clearly see it at the bottom right tip of the shaddow in the left side of the frame.
For those interested the MOLA site is herehttp://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/status.html
I would encourage everyone to visit the MOLA site as it is a wealth of great information, data, and images of the planet in 3D. And I might add scientificly accurate detail published by professional scientists.
I also made a short animation of the Mars globe, with ocean, rotating on it's axis and posted at my yahoo group here in the photo albumshttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarsReality/
You must join the group to view it but it only takes a few seconds. Coments and questions are welcome but please don't be to hard on this old amature. I don't know if I could handle the presure.
I hope you all enjoy seeing Mars as it once apeared when it was a living biosphere. I certainly had fun rendering it and was amazed at the final results of my efforts. Mars, it seems, had one huge ocean.
Enjoy
Some time ago I was browsing the MOLA (Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter)site and noticed they had published a very nice topographic map of the entire planet.
I dabble in graphical renderings using a 3D modler called Moray. It's a modeling program much like a CAD system that allows one to manufacture photorealistic 3D renders. One of the great features of Moray is that it supports a very nice hight field generator. Using a comparative scale of dark to light it projects a third axis to an otherwise flat picture or render, and makes a 3D image of said same by adding a Z axis and uplifting lighter portions, according to shading, dark being low and light high.
I thought the MOLA topographic would be an ideal candidate for this process and tried it.
As it turns out the color sceme of the MOLA topographic fit perfectly into the parameters for the hight field generator and it rendered a very nice 3D view of the entire surface of the planet.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
By skewing the camera angle and observing the results, the "aparent" shoerlines of the former oceans became grossly visable, both by virtue of the above and below water level erosion slope, and the consistancy of that demarcation level planet wide. Having seen this same effect of below and above water erosion in the great basin of the western United States it was easy to spot.
So I decided to take the flat, full planet view, and place a plane in it at the aparent level of the former oceans. I also rendered it as a globe after putting the ocean in.
The results ,for me a rank amature, we astonishingly good.
Here is a link to several of the renders I have made and posted to my yahoo profile photo albums.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/eyecapita ... /my_photos
In it is a cutaway of the planet with oceans and a simulated "warm" core and one, in true color, as it is today with a cool planet core. Note that I only guestimated the cores and they don't represent anything near science. Call them and all of these "artists conceptions." I use the term "artist" loosely.
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Following are several pictures of the Mars globe with it's former ocean, the third directly overhead of Meridiani Planum, with the Opportunity rover's location circled in red, the original MOLA topo, and the same cropped without and with ocean.
The final three are a low camera angle of the Meridiani landing site, looking north, with the ocean full and two with the water receding. The process of the water receding was simply to lower the ocean plane slightly and snap a still, so the progress of the water receding and the slope of meridiani must be fairly close to accurate.
The receding water frames were done such that they should represent a fairly acurate view of the slope at Meridiani and show it was indeed what could be called a "tidal zone" where the level was subject to change with the tides over a broad expanse. This area seems to be to be a perfect candidate for the type of sea life Sir Charles Shults III has outlined in his fossil pages at Xenotechresearch.
The final frame is a cross eyed stereo view of an object imaged by Opportunity's microscopic imager on sol 507. If this is not a fossil sand dollar I'm a blue nosed gopher.http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ ... 6M2M1.HTML That is the link to the artifact itself on nasa's raws page. You can clearly see it at the bottom right tip of the shaddow in the left side of the frame.
For those interested the MOLA site is herehttp://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/status.html
I would encourage everyone to visit the MOLA site as it is a wealth of great information, data, and images of the planet in 3D. And I might add scientificly accurate detail published by professional scientists.
I also made a short animation of the Mars globe, with ocean, rotating on it's axis and posted at my yahoo group here in the photo albumshttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarsReality/
You must join the group to view it but it only takes a few seconds. Coments and questions are welcome but please don't be to hard on this old amature. I don't know if I could handle the presure.
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
I hope you all enjoy seeing Mars as it once apeared when it was a living biosphere. I certainly had fun rendering it and was amazed at the final results of my efforts. Mars, it seems, had one huge ocean.
Enjoy