Strange Martian Spirals Explained

[Demeter]

Source: NASA

Almost 40 years ago, NASA's Mariner 9 spacecraft relayed to Earth the first video images of Mars' northern polar ice cap, revealing a strange pattern of spiral swirls that has puzzled scientists ever since. Using new data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), researchers have finally uncovered the secrets of the troughs that snake through the ice cap like a spiraled maze.

Jack Holt of the University of Texas and his graduate student Isaac Smith used radar data from MRO's Shallow Subsurface Radar to crack the case. Examining the details of this new data set has laid open the ice cap's internal structure, revealing clues to the massive ice troughs' formation.

Apparently, the wind did it...Not only does wind shape the spirals, but also it causes them to move. They rotate around the north pole, turning like an excruciatingly slow pinwheel, curiously enough, against the wind.

Read more: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/16jun_martianspirals/

[Soylent Brice]

1. amazing images!

K&R

[FLPanhandle]

2. Some conspiracy loon somewhere is screaming "COVER UP!"

Cool info. Thanks.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Planets don't conspire against people. But people DO conspire against planets.

You only have to look at the Gulf to know that.

So cool it, with your "conspiracy loon" language. You don't think there are conspiracies of the super-rich to fuck you over, and our democracy, and our economy, and other countries and Planet Earth itself?

Those trying to investigate, unmask and understand the conspiracies of people against people and against Planet Earth, and trying to hold the greedy accountable for their crimes, have nothing whatever to do with "the face on Mars" or any other such eccentric viewpoint. There are SERIOUS conspiracies of the greedy and the genocidal that desperately need exposure, if our country is going to recover from their massive crimes, and, indeed, if the planet itself and the human race are going to survive. So be careful who you call a "loon." "Conspiracy loon" is a new phrase for "witch" that encourages a mob mentality of derision and a general psychosis of scapegoating. It can blind you to important facts and truth.

[Demeter]

4. Wrong Thread

Save it for SMW or WEE.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. "Conspiracy loon" works just fine.

Conspiracy loons are obvious loons. They're unstable. They're paranoid. And they constantly want to pretend things are worse than they actually are. And if they're going to make up stories about scientists covering up the "real" nature of Martian spirals, fuck yeah they're conspiracy loons.

Fuck the lot of them.

[supernova]

5. Aww, Mars got a swirlie

:D