NAS has announced that new findings from their Reconnaissance Orbiter provide strong evidence that water flows intermittently on Mars.
The findings come just after long dark streaks on cliffs and crater walls were spotted on the red planet.
According to a NASA media release, the findings show hydrated salts on the slopes of Mars that may explain the dark features. Scientists said that it’s likely a shallow subsurface flow, “with enough water wicking to the surface to explain the darkening”.
Images show many downhill flows, known as recurring slope lineae (RSL) on the walls of cliffs, valleys and craters, which in the most active spots form intricate fan-like patterns.
Scientists are unsure of the water’s origins, believing it may rise up from underground ice or salty aquifers, or that it may be caused by condensation from the planet’s atmosphere.
Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA, said in a press conference last Monday that their rover is “finding a lot more humidity in the air than we ever imagined. As we inject the soils [on Mars] … they’re hydrated full of water.”
“These discoveries are very important, but only part of the hydrological cycle on Mars that we are now beginning to understand … Mars is not the dry planet that we thought of in the past.”
Life on Mars is now a possibility, with Michael Myers of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program saying “it seems the more we study Mars, the more we learn how life could be supported and where there are resources to support life in the future.”
John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington said that the discovery is a “significant development”.
“Our quest has been to ‘follow the water’ in our search for life in the universe,” Grunsfeld said, and “now we have convincing evidence that validates what we’ve long suspected”.