Water on Mars: Latest NASA Data Points to Water Flowing on Red Planet

According to the agency, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has sent back data which has shown the possibility that flowing water exists on Mars during the warmest months on the planet.

The data from the MRO, which orbits above the surface of the 4th planet from the sun and the Earth’s closest neighboring planet, comes in the form of images of the Martian surface over time. The images, collected over several seasons on the red planet, show dark, finger-like features which appear and extend down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer. The features, found on several steep slopes in the middle latitudes of the southern hemisphere, fade in the winter and return again during the next spring.

“The best explanation for these observations so far is the flow of briny water,” said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson. McEwen is the principal investigator for the orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and lead author of a report about the recurring flows published in Thursday’s edition of the journal Science.

“These dark lineations are different from other types of features on Martian slopes,” said MRO project scientist Richard Zurek of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Repeated observations show they extend ever farther downhill with time during the warm season.”

The researchers believe that the salty nature of the water allows it to melt into liquid form at temperatures which would freeze fresh water, allowing the water flows to exist on the cold Martian surface during its warmest times of year. While less than 5 yards in with and a few hundred yards in length, several locations on the planet consisted of thousands of flows.

The presence of liquid water pushes further the possibility that life in some form could still exist on Mars. “NASA’s Mars Exploration Program keeps bringing us closer to determining whether the Red Planet could harbor life in some form,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, “and it reaffirms Mars as an important future destination for human exploration.”