http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Exp...KA808BE_0.html

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/...raterIce_H.jpg

[ 07-30-2005, 09:57 AM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

<font color=skyblue>That is an amazing picture!</font>

How come they didn't find it before?

That's really cool.
Greasel- Maybe they just never pointed the camera in the right direction before?

Good point, Goulum. It is a large planet.

I wonder if there are more of those in there?

Brilliant, now if they can find Emerson & Palmer, we can get the band back together [img]smile.gif[/img]

You'd think there would be. Maybe some on the southern side as well.

<font color = lightgreen>So the previous missions that mapped the surface of Mars just happened to miss this crater, eh? Well, then, either:
1) the previous missions didn't do a very thorough job
2) the crater is relatively new
3) the photo is doctored.

I doubt #2 and there would be no reason for #3, unless someone at NASA is trying to drum up support for a manned mission to Mars (a waste of money at this point in time). Option #1 is thus the most likely.

If this is real, it really doesn't mean much of anything. We still won't find any evidence of live larger than a nanobe....</font>

I was actually thinking that it's a created picture, someone got a picture from the net and just digitally put water in there.
Of course it would be great if there was water on there but even if there was that single bit of water that means there would be oxygen in the atmosphere (which there isn't much of) and that there would be plant life there around the lake.
But if it is real then there must be some good reasons for it not being found before.

Ok hang on a sec I see now I actually had a look at the site and it's high resolution that's why it looks so blue... it's frozen water on the north pole.... hence why no plant life.... and hence why no oxygen in atmosphere!
*slaps self across the head*

[ 07-31-2005, 05:52 AM: Message edited by: Lauren ]

Two reasons why it wasn't discovered before.

1. I don't think the high-res camera has mapped the entire planet yet.

2. That area is usually covered with frozen lakes of carbon dioxide. It's only by looking at the crater now, when all the carbon dioxide ice has gone, that we see the water.