Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. Satellite images from Mars revealed narrow streaks, less than five meters wide, that “appear on slopes during warm season, lengthen, and then fade when conditions become cooler, according to Mirror UK”.
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These “hydrated salts” are able to keep water from freezing even at temperatures as cold as -70 degrees Celsius.
NASA announced on Monday that liquid saltwater exists on the surface of Mars – a discovery that scientists say indicates the “potential” for life on the planet. Water means there’s a better chance of life on the planet. Instruments aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found that rivers of salt water flow down Martian hills in the summer.
Astrophysicists have long hypothesised that the seasonal streaks, dubbed “recurring slope lineae“, may be formed by brine flows on the planet. Scientists have theorized that more than 4 billion years ago, the Red Planet had enough water to fill lakes and rivers, though today’s findings show the most direct evidence of the water.
At a news conference this morning, scientists announced that Mars isn’t the dry, arid planet they once thought and that it does have a water cycle, although they don’t know where the water comes from.
Scientists say they’re not sure what this could mean for the future of Mars.
Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, the scientists led by PhD student Lujendra Ojha, from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, US, concluded: “Our findings strongly support the hypothesis that recurring slope lineae form as a result of contemporary water activity on Mars”.
Different soils sampled were found to be moist and full of water. “The presence of liquid water on Mars’ present-day surface therefore points to environment[s] that are more habitable than previously thought”.
“When most people talk about water on Mars, they’re usually talking about ancient water or frozen water”.
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Said Grunsfeld: “I think all of the scientific discoveries we’re making on the surface of Mars … these observations are giving us a much better view that Mars has resources that are useful to future travels”.
