Water found on Mars!

[Scullibundo]

Holy shit!

Images taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft suggest the presence of liquid water on the Martian surface, a tantalising find for scientists wondering if the Red Planet has ever harboured life.

The orbiting US spacecraft allowed scientists to detect changes in the walls of two Martian craters that may have been caused by the recent flow of water, a team of researchers said in a paper appearing in the journal Science.

Scientists previously had established that two forms of water - ice at the poles and water vapour - exist on Mars, but liquid water is crucial to nurture life.


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The scientists compared images of the Martian surface taken seven years apart and found the existence of 20 newly formed craters caused by impact from space debris as well as the evidence suggesting liquid water trickling down crater walls.




"These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars," Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said in a statement.

The paper said water seemed to have flowed down two gullies in the past few years, even though liquid water cannot remain long on the planet's frigid, nearly airless surface because it would rapidly freeze or evaporate.

This seemed to support the notion that liquid water may exist close enough to the planet's surface in some places that it can seep out from time to time.

The scientists proposed that water could remain in liquid form long enough on the surface to transport debris downslope before freezing. The two bright new deposits are each several hundred metres long.

They cited a possible alternative explanation that these features were caused by movement of dry dust down a slope.

Scientists long have wondered whether life ever existed on Mars. Liquid water is an important part of the equation. On Earth, all forms of life require water to survive.

Among the planets in our solar system, only Earth has a more hospitable climate than Mars, and some scientists suspect Mars once sheltered primitive, bacteria-like organisms.

Previous missions found evidence that the Red Planet at one time boasted ample quantities of water, and the question is whether liquid water is still present.

"As with many discoveries, the possibility that liquid water may be coming to the surface of Mars today poses many questions," the scientists wrote.

"Where is the water coming from? How is it being maintained in liquid form given the present and most likely past environments? How widespread is the water?"

They also wondered whether the water could be used as a resource for future missions to explore Mars.

The two sites are inside craters in the Terra Sirenum and the Centauri Montes regions of southern Mars.

"The shapes of these deposits are what you would expect to see if the material were carried by flowing water," added Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, lead author of the paper.

"They have finger-like branches at the downhill end and easily diverted around small obstacles."

The researchers first reported the discovery of the gullies in 2000, but this is the first time they have revealed the presence of newly deposited material seemingly carried by liquid water.

Last month, NASA said the Mars Global Surveyor mission appeared to be at an end, saying it had lost contact after a decade-long mission in which it mapped the surface of Mars, tracked its climate and searched for evidence of water.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=169136

[Ben]

That's crazy!! I was thinking this was going to be another one of those shitty glass of water sitting on a mars bar joke.

[General Chaos]

Fucking just get some people up there already. Maybe they could spend some money on that and give Iraq a rest.

[Scullibundo]

You can bet if they found oil instead of water up there, that would be the case.

[lubes]

they've known of water on mars for ages havent they? I've known for at least a couple of years that there's been water cos of what i learnt at uni (or at least thats what i thought we learnt).. I'm confused!!

edit: just remembered that what i learnt was that it was ice under the surface of Mars and that when the ice melted it would cause landslides etc.

[GameHED]

It's been known for ages. I think it would be good if there were all kinds of alien bugs and stuff like in metroid and we had some explorers to explore ancient ruins. (oh but the face of mars doesn't exist officially) The last metroid could be up there waiting to be discovered and captured.