THE GIST
- A NASA orbiter has found possible evidence for water on the surface of Mars that flows seasonally.
- Follow-up laboratory experiments should prove or disprove theory.
- The water likely would be salty, in keeping with the salty Martian environment.
Streaking (enhanced here with color) on Mars' Horowitz Crater may have been created by seasonal water, say scientists. Click to enlarge this image.
Science/AAAS
Summertime on Mars is bringing water to the planet's surface, suggest NASA scientists who on Wednesday unveiled pictures of slender carvings in the sun-facing sides of crater walls on Mars that are believed to be etched by flowing briny water.
"Mars is salty so any water that flows in or on the surface would be salty as well," lead researcher Alfred McEwen, with the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, told Discovery News.
NEWS: Mars Rover Spirit Finds Evidence of Water
Salts also would suppress the water's freezing point, making it plausible that the dark, finger-like features were carved by liquid. The streaks range from 0.5 yards to 5 yards wide and stretch hundreds of feet, far smaller than previously detected gullies. They are concentrated on rocky, equator-facing slopes.
Read More: http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-salt-water-surface-110804.html
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