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Planetary Radio • Aug 01, 2018

Diving Into That Lake on Mars

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On This Episode

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Jim Garvin

Chief Scientist for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

20180731 chris mckay

Chris McKay

Senior Scientist for NASA Ames Research Center

20170726 Twitteravatar Isabel Lawrence 50 Hi Res
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Bruce Betts

Chief Scientist / LightSail Program Manager for The Planetary Society

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Mat Kaplan

Senior Communications Adviser and former Host of Planetary Radio for The Planetary Society

Our world was rocked by last week’s announcement of good radar evidence for a liquid water “lake” under the Red Planet’s south pole. Senior Editor Emily Lakdawalla introduces us to the story that is then taken up by two of host Mat Kaplan’s favorite Martians. The Goddard Space Flight Center’s James Garvin headed NASA’s Mars exploration program, while NASA Ames astrobiologist Chris McKay co-founded the Mars Underground more than 35 years ago. Look up! Mars is still close by, and the Perseid meteor shower is around the corner. Bruce Betts gives us the What’s Up lowdown.

ExoMars image of layered deposits at the south pole of Mars
ExoMars image of layered deposits at the south pole of Mars The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured this view of part of the south polar ice cap on Mars on 13 May 2018. The poles of Mars have huge ice caps that are similar to Earth’s polar caps in Greenland and Antarctica. These caps are composed primarily of water ice and were deposited in layers that contain varying amounts of dust. They are referred to as the martian Polar Layered Deposits (PLD). Thanks to massive canyons that dissect the layered deposits, orbiting spacecraft can view the layered internal structure. The ExoMars orbiter’s Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System, CaSSIS, viewed this 7 x 38 km segment of icy layered deposits near the margin of the South PLD, which extend as far north as 73ºS. Here, CaSSIS has imaged remnant deposits within a crater at this margin. The beautiful variations in color and brightness of the layers are visible through the camera’s color filters. It highlights the bright ice and the redder sandy deposits toward the top of the image.Image: ESA / Roscosmos / CaSSIS
Detecting buried water with radar
Detecting buried water with radar Radargram for MARSIS orbit 10737. A radargram is a bi-dimensional color-coded section made of a sequence of echoes in which the horizontal axis is the distance along the ground track of the spacecraft, the vertical axis represents the two-way travel time of the echo (from a reference altitude of 25 km above the reference datum), and brightness is a function of echo power. The continuous bright line in the topmost part of the radargram is the echo from the surface interface, whereas the bottom reflector at about 160 μs corresponds to the SPLD/basal material interface. Strong basal reflections can be seen at some locations, where the basal interface is also planar and parallel to the surface.Image: ESA / NASA / JPL / ASI / Univ. Rome; R. Orosei et al 2018

This Week’s Prizes:
A svelte Planetary Radio t-shirt from the Planetary Society Chop Shop store. Also, a 200-point iTelescope.net astronomy account.

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iTelescope.net

This week's question:

What is the most abundant chemical element in the universe?

To submit your answer:

Complete the contest entry form at http://planetary.org/radiocontest or write to us at [email protected] no later than Wednesday, August 8th at 8am Pacific Time. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Last week's question:

When will be the next time Mars is closer to Earth than the 2018 approach on July 31st?

Answer:

The answer will be revealed next week.

Question from the week before:

After Apollo 11, what was the first American mission to fly an all-veteran crew? (All members had previously been in space.)

Answer:

The crew of STS-26 was the first American mission after Apollo 11 to have a crew consisting entirely of space veterans.