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NASA sees evidence suggesting liquid water on Mars
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 06 - 12 - 2006


Images taken by NASA's Mars
Global Surveyor spacecraft suggest the presence of liquid water
on the Martian surface, a tantalizing find for scientists
wondering if the Red Planet ever has harbored life, according to Reuters.
The orbiting U.S. 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 on Wednesday in the journal Science.
Scientists previously had established that two forms of
water -- ice at the poles and water vapor -- exist on Mars, but
liquid water is crucial to nurture life.
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 meters or yards 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.


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