SoylentNews

Eratosthenes [soylentnews.org] writes:

Yes, over at CNN, on Mars [cnn.com], we have reports of surface morphology that may be due to solar exposure.

(CNN)Mars may seem like a still, frozen desert, but more evidence suggests that the red planet is active in subtle ways.
The NASA InSight mission has helped researchers determine that the planet experiences Marsquakes, making it seismically active.
And then there is the mystery of Recurring Slope Lineae, known as RSL, that have intrigued scientists for years. These RSL are a form of landslide on Mars, but no one knows what causes them, said Janice Bishop, author of a new study on the phenomena.

Yes, RSLs, like DMDs and SJWs and WTFs, it's all about the TLA's!

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this view of Krupac crater on Mars featuring gullies along the rim and landlsides lower down the crater wall.
"We see them from orbit by the dark streaks they produce on the ground and they tend to always occur on sun-facing slopes, which led geologists to think they were related to melting ice early on," said Bishop, senior research scientist at the SETI Institute in California.
"The interesting thing is that they increase over months following dust storms and then fade away, and they appear to form repeatedly in the same regions. Also, a large number of these are forming in the equatorial part of Mars, where there is very little ice."
Any ice in these regions would have to be in tiny frozen particles that exist between grains of soil below the surface.

These puzzling landslides have never been seen up close by a rover or lander, and until they can be investigated by a robotic explorer, scientists are using lab experiments and Martian analogs on Earth to try and understand them.

Yes, that is what I said. Lab experiments, with Martian soils! What could possibly go wrong?
[And yes, facietious satirical rhetorical question, no reply necessary, though comments are welcome?]

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