Scientists claim finding ‘evidence’ of water on Mars

Published September 29, 2015
The planet Mars is seen in an image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope taken August 27, 2003. ─ Reuters/File
The planet Mars is seen in an image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope taken August 27, 2003. ─ Reuters/File
This undated photo provided by NASA and taken by an instrument aboard the agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks on the surface of Mars that scientists believe were caused by flowing streams of salty water. ─ AP
This undated photo provided by NASA and taken by an instrument aboard the agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks on the surface of Mars that scientists believe were caused by flowing streams of salty water. ─ AP
Portions of the Martian surface shot by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show many channels from 1 meter to 10 meters wide on a scarp in the Hellas impact basin. ─ Reuters
Portions of the Martian surface shot by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show many channels from 1 meter to 10 meters wide on a scarp in the Hellas impact basin. ─ Reuters
A handout image made available by NASA on September 27, 2015, shows the dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae flowing down the west facing slopes of Coprates Chasma in the equatorial region of Mars. ─ AFP
A handout image made available by NASA on September 27, 2015, shows the dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae flowing down the west facing slopes of Coprates Chasma in the equatorial region of Mars. ─ AFP
A handout image made available by NASA on September 27, 2015, dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae emanating out of the walls of Garni crater on Mars. ─ AFP
A handout image made available by NASA on September 27, 2015, dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae emanating out of the walls of Garni crater on Mars. ─ AFP
A handout image made available by NASA on September 27, 2015, shows dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks called recurring slope lineae flowing downhill on Mars are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. ─ AFP
A handout image made available by NASA on September 27, 2015, shows dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks called recurring slope lineae flowing downhill on Mars are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. ─ AFP
Recently, planetary scientists detected hydrated salts on these slopes at Horowitz crater, corroborating their original hypothesis that the streaks are indeed formed by liquid water. ─ AFP
Recently, planetary scientists detected hydrated salts on these slopes at Horowitz crater, corroborating their original hypothesis that the streaks are indeed formed by liquid water. ─ AFP
WASHINGTON: John Grunsfeld, an associate administrator at Nasa, speaks during a press conference where the agency announced findings that provide the  “strongest evidence yet” that salty liquid water currently exists on Mars.—AFP
WASHINGTON: John Grunsfeld, an associate administrator at Nasa, speaks during a press conference where the agency announced findings that provide the “strongest evidence yet” that salty liquid water currently exists on Mars.—AFP

PARIS: Scientists announced on Monday “the strongest evidence yet” of liquid water on Mars, raising a distant prospect of microscopic life on our neighbouring planet.

Curious lines running down steep slopes on the surface of the Red Planet may be streaks of super-salty brine, a team said after discovering evidence of “hydrated” salt minerals.

These results “strongly support the hypothesis” of liquid water on Mars — though not H2O as we know it, concluded a research paper in the journal Nature Geoscience.

If anything, it was likely “wet soil, not free water sitting on the surface”, study co-author Alfred McEwen, from the University of Arizona, said.

NASA said the findings, made with its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, “provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars”.

“Mars is not the dry, arid planet we thought of in the past, according to Jim Green, the American agency’s planetary science director.

“Under certain circumstances, liquid water has been found on Mars,” he told journalists in Washington.

The hydrated salt minerals, called perchlorites, contain water molecules in their make-up, and their presence indicates that “water plays a vital role in the formation of these streaks”, according to Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

It is widely accepted that the Red Planet once hosted plentiful water in liquid form, and still has water today, albeit frozen in ice underground.

Earlier this year, NASA said almost half of Mars’ northern hemisphere had once been an ocean, reaching depths greater than 1.6 kilometres.

Published in Dawn September 29th, 2015

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