Scientists Find Evidence of Liquid Water On Mars’ Surface. Awesome.
Scientists have evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars. This makes my geek boner dial itself up to eleven. While we’ve known for some time that there lurks frozen water underneath Mars’ surface, scientists have identified what they’re calling seasonal streams of liquid water across the planet’s surface.
Awesome.
io9:
Today, a group of scientists announced their discovery in Science, and told io9 what this liquid water might be like – and whether it changes the prospects for life on Mars.
The watery streams were spotted by NASA’s HiRISE Martian orbiter in several different locations on the Martian surface. They look like thin, dark rivulets coming down from the tops of craters – much like mountain streams on Earth. The dark streaks appeared seasonally over a period of three years, so the researchers are relatively certain that they’re seeing what might be equivalent to a spring thaw on Earth. But what kind of water could maintain liquid form on the surface of Mars, which is such an icy planet? The answer is that it’s probably extremely brackish and packed with salts that lower the freezing temperature of water.
This is fucking awesome.