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Martian volcanoes could be active, Space Photos Show

Mars - Early May 2002 Photo taken from NASA.

Thursday's Globe and Mail, contained a report that excited me quite a lot while leaving Laura entirely unmoved:

Photographs taken by a spacecraft orbiting Mars indicate that active volcanoes may exist on the Red Planet, further eroding its image as a dead world and offering prime sites to prospect for signs of life.

Images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter indicate geologically recent volcanic activity in the summit craters of five volcanoes, with some areas showing activity as recently as four million years ago.

Though long in human terms, four million years amounts to the most recent 1 per cent of Martian history, a strong suggestion that the planet retains a capacity for volcanic activity ...

In the past few years, researchers have found -- most recently with the U.S. twin robotic rovers still exploring Mars -- abundant evidence of ice at the surface and signs that water flowed there in the past.

There also are signs of recent volcanic activity. The latest work suggests that water could bubble up in hydrothermal springs on some of the planet's spectacular volcanic peaks.

"This is of great interest to biologists," said Michael Carr, a planetary scientist in the Menlo Park, Calif., office of the U.S. Geological Survey.

In recent years, researchers discovered that hydrothermal environments on Earth are remarkably rich in life.

Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor and hot springs on land provide the nutrients and energy to sustain rich ecosystems. Some biologists argue that life began in such places.

Martian hydrothermal systems probably would look much like the steaming pools and spouting geysers of Yellowstone National Park in the United States, Dr. Carr said. If such environments exist on Mars, investigations at those places would be crucial...

Laura doesn't understand my interest in astronomy and, especially, in the exploration (and eventual colonization - the sooner the better) of space, while Peterborough's own easyalchemy thinks that "Space Science is totally dumb." I fear such attitudes are likely fairly widespread among even you, Gentle Readers - and I know they are among those of the population in general with whom I otherwise have much in common - left/progressive political types, those interested in literature and the arts - you know, Liberal Arts types, whether or not they've attended university. (Those same types also often look down upon my prediliction for science fiction, thinking it "escapist", as if (to paraphrase an SF writer whose name escapes me) thinking about such things as ecology, over-population, war and peace, prejudice and the future in general is escapist. Nevertheless, my interest in science fiction is a related, but separate topic, with which I will deal no further here.)

A couple of weeks ago, Laura asked me to justify not so much my intellectual interest in things astrophysical, in particular, my support for "the space program" (the quotation marks indicate two things. First, that there is more than one space program kicking around; second, my support for the exploration of things outside the Terrestrial Sphere doesn't mean I approve of the details of how we are going about it now).

Since a star led those Magi guys to Christ's mythical manger, a quiet Christmas morning (which is when I started this eassy) seems as good a time as any to attempt my defence. This may get kind of long, so those Gentle Readers among you not interested in my thoughts on such matters should defnitely not ( click here. )