NASA scientist confirmed that liquid water flowing on the surface of present day Mars and is mostly salty and not pure.
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The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has circled the planet since 2006, found “strong evidence” of flowing, salty water streams on a few slopes around Mars, Green said.
Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, NASA scientists found signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet.
CNBC also notes that Lujendra Ojha, a researcher on the project, said “something is hydrating these salts, and it appears to be these streaks that come and go with the seasons”.
“But something happened, Mars suffered a major climate change and lost its surface water”, Green said.
The flow of water leave long, dark stains on the surface of Mars that can reach hundreds of meters downhill in the warmer months, before they dry up in the autumn as surface temperatures drop, reported The Guardian.
“There is liquid water today on the surface of Mars”, Michael Meyer, the lead scientist on Nasa’s Mars exploration programme, told the Guardian.
“The streaks then disappear during the cold season”.
Although the source and the chemistry of the water is unknown, the discovery could affect thinking about whether the planet that is most like Earth in the solar system could support microbial life.
The lines of “hydrated” salt minerals found would require water for their creation, and where there’s liquid water, there could be life, even if it’s in microbial form.
But the confirmation that water flows on Mars means much more.
Further reconnaissance is necessary if NASA plans to find microscopic life on the planet.
Monday NASA officials announced they discovered flowing water on the red planet.
“Up until now, they’ve all been kind of speculative, just based on what we thought we knew about Mars”, said Miller.
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It will now be up to NASA and the eight researchers who were involved in the groundbreaking study to continue looking into where exactly the water is coming from.
