So NASA hasn’t surprised us with evidence of monuments or alien artefacts on Mars, but it does believe it has evidence of ‘recent’ flowing liquid water on its surface. See our earlier story NASA to Announce Significant Find on Mars!
In a press conference this afternoon, NASA spokesmen told journalists that they believed light coloured streaks on the surface of Mars is water rising from below the surface and spilling down the slopes of craters and valleys to form gullies.
NASA believes the water flows in a similar way to that of a mudslides here on earth. Then as the water evaporates away from the sediment, it freezes on the top to form a kind of frost, giving it its lighter colour.
The evidence for the theory comes from pictures of gullies originally photographed in 1999 – 2001 and again in 2004 – 2005 which appear to show changes that could have only been caused by flowing water.
With the possibly presence of free-flowing water, the obvious question now is would such conditions support life?
NASA obviously said it wouldn’t like to speculate, but it is thought that if water is really present on the surface, then it would be be one more reason to think life could have, or could still exists on Mars.
External Links:
NASA Images Suggest Water Still Flows in Brief Spurts on Mars
Water flowed ‘recently’ on Mars (BBC)
