Water on Mars: Exploration & Evidence Water on Mars: Exploration & Evidence By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor | October 7, 2015 05:11pm ET MORE Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona Liquid water may still flow on Mars, but that doesn't mean it's easy to spot. The search for water on the Red Planet has taken more than 15 years to turn up definitive signs that liquid flows on the surface today. In the past, however, rivers and oceans may have covered the land. Where did all of the liquid water go? Why? How much of it still remains? Observations of the Red Planet indicate that rivers and oceans may have been prominent features in its early history. Billions of years ago, Mars was a warm and wet world that could have supported microbial life in some regions. But the planet is smaller than Earth , with less gravity and a thinner atmosphere. Over time, as liquid water evaporated, more and more of it escaped into space, allowing less to fall back to the surface of the planet. Where is the water today? Liquid water appears to flow from some steep, relatively warm slopes on the Martian surface.

First identified in 2011 , features known as recurring slope lineae (RSL) were confirmed to be signs of salty water running on the surface of the planet today. The dark streaks appear seasonally on Martian slopes were found in images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Spectral analysis of RSL lead scientists to conclude they are caused by salty liquid water. [Related: Salty Water Flows on Mars Today, Boosting Odds for Life ] "The detection of hydrated salts on these slopes means that water plays a vital role in the formation of these streaks," the study's lead author, Lujendra Ojha, of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, said in a statement . Vast deposits of water appear to be trapped within the ice caps at the north and south poles of the planet. Each summer, as temperatures increase, the caps shrink slightly as their contents skip straight from solid to gas form, but in the winter, cooler temperatures cause them to grow to latitudes as low as 45 degrees, or halfway to the equator.

The caps are an average of 2 miles (3 kilometers) thick and, if completely melted, could cover the Martian surface with about 18 feet (5.6 meters) of water. Frozen water also lies beneath the surface. Scientists discovered a slab of ice as large as California and Texas combined in the region between the equator and north pole of the Red Planet. The presence of subsurface water has long been suspected but required the appearance of strange layered craters to confirm. Other regions of the planet may contain frozen water, as well. Some high-latitude regions seem to boast patterned ground-shapes that may have formed as permafrost in the soil freezes and thaws over time. The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft captured images of sheets of ice in the cooler, shadowed bottoms of craters, which suggests that liquid water can pool under appropriate conditions. Other craters identified by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show similar pooling. Evidence for water on Mars first came to light in 2000, with the appearance of gullies that suggested a liquid origin. Their formation has been hotly debated over the ensuing years.

At the center of this view of an area of mid-latitude northern Mars, a fresh crater about 6 meters (20 feet) in diameter holds an exposure of bright material, blue in this false-color image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona [ Full Story ] Searching for an oasis When Mariner 9 became the first craft to orbit another planet in 1971, the photographs it returned of dry river beds and canyons seemed to indicate that water had once existed on the Martian surface. Images from the Viking orbiters only strengthened the idea that many of the landforms may have been created by running water. Data from the Viking landers pointed to the presence of water beneath the surface, but the experiments were deemed inconclusive. [ Mars Explored: Landers and Rovers Since 1971 (Infographic) ] The early '90s kicked off a slew of Mars missions . Scientists were flooded with a wealth of information about Mars. Three NASA orbiters and one sent by the European Space Agency studied the planet from above, mapping the surface and analyzing the minerals below. Some detected the presence of minerals, indicating the presence of water. Other data measured enough subsurface ice to fill Lake Michigan twice .

They found evidence for the presence of hot springs on the surface and sustained precipitation at some areas. And they found patches of ice within some of the deeper craters. Impact craters offer a view of the interior of the red planet. Using the ESA's Mars Express and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists were able to study rocks ejected from the planet's interior, finding minerals that suggested the presence of water. "Water circulation occurred several kilometers deep in the crust some 3.7 billion years ago," Nicolas Mangold, of the University of Nantes in France, said in a statement . But orbiters weren't the only objects launched toward Mars. NASA's Curiosity rover is the fifth robot to land on the surface of the Red Planet in the last 15 years. Pathfinder, Phoenix, Spirit and Opportunity all took detailed measurements of the planet; all but Phoenix traveled across the surface collecting a treasure trove of information. Images of one of Phoenix's struts taken by the lander's robotic arm camera on Sols (or Martian days) 8, 31 and 44 of th emission.

The two spheroids enclosed by the circle appear to merge with each other, which some Phoenix scientists argue is a sign that the globs are liquid water. Credit: Renno, et al., NASA The probes dug into the ground, examining rocks and performing experiments. In 2008, Phoenix turned up small chunks of bright material that disappeared after four days, leading scientists to surmise that they were pieces of water ice. The lander went on to detect water vapor in a sample it collected and analyzed, confirming the presence of frozen water on the red planet. Spirit and Opportunity, the twin rovers, found traces of water enclosed in rock. In a shining example of a problem becoming a solution, a broken wheel on Spirit scraped into the top of the Martian surface, revealing a layer beneath rich in silica that had most likely formed in the presence of water. Curiosity has found yet more evidence of water flowing on ancient Mars . The 1-ton rover rolled through an ancient stream bed shortly after touching down in August 2012, and it has examined a number of rocks that were exposed to liquid water billions of years ago. Mars missions aren't the only way to search for water on Mars.

Scientists studying rocks ejected from the Red Planet found signs that water lay beneath the surface in the past. "While robotic missions to Mars continue to shed light on the planet's history, the only samples from Mars available for study on Earth are Martian meteorites," lead author Lauren White, of the JPL, said in a statement . "On Earth, we can utilize multiple analytical techniques to take a more in-depth look at meteorites and shed light on the history of Mars." Historical landforms In addition to examining the relatively recent (geologically speaking) presence of water, the various missions have also studied the surface of the planet in a historical context. The river beds of Mars don't run wet today, but scientists can study them to learn more about the evolution of the planet. [ Photos: The Search for Water on Mars ] The flatter northern plains of Mars may once have hosted an ocean , or possibly, as the planet cycled through dry periods, two. The more recent body of water would likely have only been temporary, seeping into the ground, evaporating, or freezing in less than a million years, scientists say. Riverbeds and gullies indicate that water ran, at least briefly, across the surface of Mars.

A hundred times more water may have flowed annually through a large channel system known as Marte Vallis than passes through the Mississippi River each year, according to estimates. The gullies themselves are smaller, likely forming during brief torrential rainstorms when fast-moving water could have carved them across the land. Curiosity found indications that at least one region of Mars, Mount Sharp, was built by sediments deposited in a lake bed millions of years ago, suggesting large pools existed on the planet for significant time periods. "If our hypothesis for Mount Sharp holds up, it challenges the notion that warm and wet conditions were transient, local, or only underground on Mars," Curiosity deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said in a statement . On Earth, the land around rivers and lakes is wetter, made up of mud and clays . Such deposits exist on Mars as well, trapping water and indicating where larger bodies may have once existed. Liquid gold Water may seem like a very common element to those of us stuck on Earth, but it has great value.

In addition to understanding how Mars may have changed and developed over time, scientists hope that finding water will help them to find something even more valuable — life, either past or present. Only Earth is known to host life, and life on our planet requires water. Though life could conceivably evolve without relying on this precious liquid, scientists can only work with what they know. Thus they hope that locating water on celestial bodies such as Mars will lead to finding evidence for life. With this in mind, NASA developed a strategy for exploring the Red Planet that takes as its mantra "follow the water." Recent orbiters, landers and rovers sent to Mars were designed to search for water, rather than life, in the hopes of finding environments where life could have thrived. That has changed, however, with the flood of evidence these robots have returned. Curiosity determined that Mars could indeed have supported microbial life in the ancient past, and the next NASA rover — a car-size robot based heavily on Curiosity's basic design — will blast off in 2020 to look for evidence of past Red Planet life.

Additional resources Evidence of liquid water found on Mars - BBC News BBC News Evidence of liquid water found on Mars By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website 13 April 2015 Image copyright NASA Image caption Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater since 2012 Nasa's Curiosity rover has found that water can exist as a liquid near the Martian surface. Mars should be too cold to support liquid water at the surface, but salts in the soil lower its freezing point - allowing briny films to form. The results lend credence to a theory that dark streaks seen on features such as crater walls could be formed by flowing water. The results are published in the journal Nature Geoscience . Scientists think thin films of water form when salts in the soil, called perchlorates, absorb water vapour from the atmosphere. The temperature of these liquid films is about -70C - too cold to support any of the microbial life forms that we know about. Forming in the top 15cm of the Martian soil, the brines would also be exposed to high levels of cosmic radiation - another challenge to life.

But it's still possible that organisms could exist somewhere beneath the surface on Mars, where conditions are more favourable. Evaporation cycle The researchers drew together different lines of evidence collected over a Martian year, and from different instruments carried by the Curiosity rover. The Rover Environmental Monitoring System (REMS) - essentially the vehicle's weather station - measured the relative humidity and temperature at the rover's landing site of Gale Crater. Scientists were also able to estimate the subsurface water content using data from an instrument called Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN). These data were consistent with water in the soil being bound to perchlorates. Finally, the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument gave the researchers the content of water vapour in the atmosphere. Image copyright NASA Image caption Gale Crater once hosted a lake with conditions that could have been favourable to life Image copyright NASA Image caption Curiosity's Mast and deck where REMS sensors are located The results show conditions were right for the brines to form during winter nights at the Martian equator, where Curiosity landed. But the liquid evaporates during the Martian day when temperatures rise.

Javier Martin-Torres, a co-investigator on the Curiosity mission and lead scientist on REMS, told BBC News the detection was indirect but convincing: "What we see are the conditions for the formation of brines on the surface. It's similar to when people were discovering the first exoplanets. "They were not seeing the planets, but they were able to see the gravitational effects on the star. "These perchlorate salts have a property called deliquescence. They take the water vapour from the atmosphere and absorb it to produce the brines." He added: "We see a daily water cycle - which is very important. This cycle is maintained by the brine. On Earth we have an exchange between the atmosphere and the ground through rain. But we don't have this on Mars." Image copyright NASA Image caption Streaks known as recurring slope lineae may be caused by seeping water Image copyright Martin Torres / Zorzano Image caption Scientists see a daily water cycle maintained by the brines While one might think that liquid water would form at warmer temperatures, the formation of brines is the result of an interaction between temperature and atmospheric pressure. It happens that the sweet spot for formation of these liquid films is at colder temperatures.

The fact that the scientists see evidence for these brines at the Martian equator - where conditions are least favourable - means that they might be more persistent at higher latitudes, in areas where the humidity is higher and temperatures are lower. In these regions they might even be present all year round. Dark streaks on slopes seen by orbiting spacecraft have long been thought to be the product of running water seeping from the Martian soil. But this interpretation has been contested. "It's speculation at this point... but these observations at least support or go in this direction," said Dr Martin-Torres. Scientists just found the first evidence for liquid water on Mars - Vox Scientists just found the first evidence for liquid water on Mars Well done, Curiosity. Well done. ( NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems ) Scientists just found the best evidence yet that liquid water is currently present on Mars . Using data collected by the Curiosity rover , they determined that tiny amounts of water vapor condense as a liquid in the planet's soil at night and evaporate away in the morning.

The research, published today in Nature Geoscience , shows that high amounts of salt in the soil lower the melting point of water, allowing it to temporarily pool as a liquid despite the subzero temperatures. water pools as a liquid at night despite the subzero temperatures "There have been hypotheses and laboratory studies supporting this possibility before," says Javier Martín-Torres , a planetary scientist at Spain's Andalusian Earth Sciences Institute and Sweden's Luleå Technical University, and the lead author of the study, "but this is the first time that we've found evidence that conditions are right for the formation of liquid water on Mars." Previously, satellite data has provided indirect geological evidence of liquid water — and we have good reason to believe lots of water existed on Mars in the past — but this new finding changes our understanding of the planet's hydrologic cycle. It's still extremely unlikely any life could possibly live in such cold conditions — but the finding could perhaps make it easier for humans to live on Mars in the very distant future. How liquid water can form on Mars — even in freezing temperatures A hole drilled by Curiosity into Martian rock, as part of another experiment .

(NASA/JPL-CalTech) Normally, Mars would be far too cold for water to form in a liquid state. So even though scientists detected hints of water vapor being absorbed from the Martian atmosphere into the soil as far back as the 1970s Viking program , they didn't seriously consider that it'd condense in a liquid form. "We were thinking of the exchange as water vapor going into the surface and being absorbed, or freezing as ice," says Richard Zurek , a NASA scientist who worked on the Viking program. However, those scientists didn't take into account the heavy amounts of perchlorate salts that are have since been found in Martian soil. These salts can dramatically lower the freezing point of water — enough for the water vapor that gets absorbed into the soil nightly to pool in a liquid state. "This transient liquid water forms within the uppermost five centimeters of the soil overnight, and dries out at sunrise," Martín-Torres says. Martín-Torres and other scientists determined this was occurring by analyzing data collected by Curiosity on humidity, air pressure, and temperature levels above and below the soil surface.

At night, during Mars's spring and winter months, they saw water vapor getting squeezed out of the air and condensing in the soil — because cold air can't hold as much moisture — and in the morning, they saw water vapor rising up from the ground. Mars's daily liquid water cycle. (Martín-Torres and Zorzano) "They've got a direct measurement of the relative humidity, and they know there are these salts in the ground," says Zurek, who wasn't involved in the research. "Together, these things tell us that there's liquid water." So how much water is there on Mars? It was already known that water exists in all sorts of non-liquid forms on Mars: as ice (both in the ice caps and in glacier belts that encircle both hemispheres), as water molecules bonded to minerals in the planet’s soil, and as water vapor in the atmosphere. The traces of water spotted here by Curiosity are very little, by volume, compared with what we already knew about. But the finding suggests there might be much more water in the soil than we previously imagined.

That's because Curiosity collected this data in Gale Crater — a low-altitude, relatively warm location that has less atmospheric water vapor than most other parts of Mars, so should be least likely to have this sort of condensation. "The fact that it happens here means it is likely more abundant elsewhere," says Alfred McEwan , a planetary scientist who worked on the new paper. This phenomenon might be responsible for the dark streaks in Mars' soil that McEwan and other scientists have previously spotted with satellites. These have formed seasonally, and it's been hypothesized that they're evidence of water melting and running downhill over the soil. Satellite images show seasonal dark streaks on Mars's surface, which might be evidence of seeping water. ( NASA ) "These landslides occur seasonally, in warmer periods, on the slopes of Mars," Martín-Torres says. "One possible explanation for this detachment of material could be changes in state of brines present in the soil." If these streaks are indeed formed by flowing water, it would mean there's way more liquid water on Mars than we previously imagined.

Curiosity hasn't detected similar streaks itself, but it's confirmed a mechanism through which liquid water can form at such cold temperatures: perchlorates. This doesn't mean there's currently life on Mars Everything you need to know about human exploration of Mars Upon hearing about liquid water, it's tempting to imagine Martian microbes swimming around. But in reality, this finding doesn't make the remote possibility of current life on Mars any more likely. "We found that the conditions for the formation of liquid water are extremely cold — lower than the threshold needed for the cellular metabolism of life as we know it," says Martín-Torres. However, many scientists believe Mars was much warmer and wetter billions of years ago, when it may have had a thicker atmosphere to help trap heat. The presence of perchlorates mean it wouldn't have had to be quite as warm for large amounts of liquid water to form, perhaps explaining the geologic evidence of ancient lake beds and other water-related features Curiosity has found so far. If Mars was somewhat warmer long ago, it's possible that life could have evolved. A rendering of the lake that scientists believe filled Mars's Gale Crater billions of years ago.

(NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/MSSS) And regardless of whether there's ever been life on Mars, this finding might make it somewhat easier for humans to someday live there. Though Mars colonization presents all sorts of difficulties , one major challenge would be getting water — for drinking, growing crops, and perhaps refining into rocket fuel . The most obvious water source would be the ice caps on the poles, as well as the glaciers at higher latitudes, but settling there would mean colder temperatures and less solar power. Refining water that's trapped in soil could present a more appealing option. Curiosity only found traces of salty water in the top few centimeters of soil. But if there's more liquid water farther down, Zurek says, it could make refining enough water for human use much more economical. Dreams of colonizing Mars remain a distant fantasy, but the bottom line is that a wetter Mars is one we'd have an easier time living on.

Watch: What it might take to colonize Mars Current Affairs 2015: NASA found evidence of water on Mars - India.com » Exams & Results Current Affairs 2015: NASA found evidence of water on Mars Indian film actress Swara Bhaskar won the Best Actress award at 2nd Silk Road International Film Festival (2015) in Fuzhou, China for playing a mother to a teenager in Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s directorial film Nil Battey Sannata (The New Classmate). The 2nd Silk Road International Film Festival, which concluded on September 26, 2015. By India.com Education Desk | Published: September 29, 2015 11:20 AM IST Nasa finds evidence of a vast ancient ocean on Mars | Science | The Guardian Mars Nasa finds evidence of a vast ancient ocean on Mars A huge primitive ocean covered one-fifth of the red planet’s surface, making it warm, wet and ideal for alien life to gain a foothold, scientists say An artist’s impression of the ancient ocean on Mars, which lasted for billions of years more than was previously thought.

Credits: Mars Geronimo Villanueva/Nasa Mars Nasa finds evidence of a vast ancient ocean on Mars A huge primitive ocean covered one-fifth of the red planet’s surface, making it warm, wet and ideal for alien life to gain a foothold, scientists say Thursday 5 March 2015 14.00 EST Last modified on Thursday 15 December 2016 11.29 EST Share on Messenger Close A massive ancient ocean once covered nearly half of the northern hemisphere of Mars making the planet a more promising place for alien life to have gained a foothold, Nasa scientists say. The huge body of water spread over a fifth of the planet’s surface, as great a portion as the Atlantic covers the Earth, and was a mile deep in places. In total, the ocean held 20 million cubic kilometres of water, or more than is found in the Arctic Ocean, the researchers found. Unveiled by Nasa on Thursday, the compelling evidence for the primitive ocean adds to an emerging picture of Mars as a warm and wet world in its youth, which trickled with streams, winding river deltas, and long-standing lakes, soon after it formed 4.5bn years ago.

The view of the planet’s ancient history radically re-writes what many scientists believed only a decade ago. Back then, flowing water was widely considered to have been a more erratic presence on Mars, gushing forth only rarely, and never forming long-standing seas and oceans. “A major question has been how much water did Mars actually have when it was young and how did it lose that water?” said Michael Mumma, a senior scientist at Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Writing in the journal, Science , the Nasa team, and others at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Munich, provide an answer after studying Mars with three of the most powerful infra-red telescopes in the world. The scientists used the Keck II telescope and Nasa’s Infrared Telescope Facility, both in Hawaii, and the ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, to make maps of the Martian atmosphere over six years. They looked specifically at how different forms of water molecules in the Martian air varied from place to place over the changing seasons. Martian water, like that on Earth, contains standard water molecules, made from two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, and another form of water made with a heavy isotope of hydrogen called deuterium.

On Mars, water containing normal hydrogen is lost to space over time, but the heavier form is left behind. When normal water is lost on Mars, the concentration of deuterium in water left behind goes up. The process can be used to infer how much water there used to be on the planet. The higher the concentration of deuterium, the more water has been lost. Ancient Mars was a warm and wet planet The infrared maps show that water near the Martian ice caps is enriched with deuterium. The high concentration means that Mars must have lost a vast amount of water in the past, equivalent to more than six times that now locked up in the planet’s frozen ice caps. The scientists calculate that the amount of water was enough to create a global ocean that covered the entire surface of Mars to a depth of 137m. But Mars was probably never completely submerged. Based on the Martian terrain today, the scientists believe the water pooled into a much deeper ocean in the low-lying northern plains, creating an ocean that covered nearly a fifth of the planet’s surface. The Atlantic, by comparison, covers about 17% of Earth’s surface.

“Ultimately we can conclude this idea of an ocean covering 20% of the planet which opens the idea of habitability and the evolution of life on the planet,” said Geronimo Villanueva, the first author on the study. Methane on Mars: does it mean the Curiosity rover has found life? Read more The huge body of water lasted for millions of years. But over time, the Martian atmosphere thinned. The drop in pressure meant more ocean water wafted into space. The planet lost much of its insulation too. No longer warm enough to keep the water liquid, the ocean receded and eventually froze. Today, only 13% of the ocean remains, locked up the Martian polar caps. “We now know Mars was wet for a much longer time than we thought before,” said Mumma. Nasa’s Curiosity rover has already shown that Mars had standing water for 1.5 billion years, longer than it took for life to emerge on Earth. “Now we see that Mars must have been wet for a period even longer,” Mumma added. John Bridges, a planetary scientist at Leicester University, who works on Nasa’s Curiosity rover mission, said Mars was surely at least habitable in the distant past.

“Ten years ago, the story of water on Mars was an occasional flood of rocky debris every 100m years that then switched off again. We now know it’s more continuous. There were long-standing bodies of water: lakes, deltas and perhaps even seas,” he said. “It seems to me that we have excellent evidence that Mars was once habitable, though whether it was ever inhabited is not clear. But there’s a chance. A life-bearing meteorite might have been ejected from Earth and could have landed in the water on Mars,” he added. The search for life on Mars will ramp up in 2018 when the European Space Agency sends its Exomars rover to the red planet. The rover will look for chemical signatures of life, perhaps emanating from microbes living deep beneath the Martian soil. Last year, Nasa’s Curiosity rover detected methane in the Martian atmosphere. The finding sparked intense speculation that the gas might be coming from living organisms . It might, but there is no evidence to suggest it is. Methane is regularly produced on planets through geological processes without any need for life.

Charles Cockell, professor of astrobiology at Edinburgh University, said: “The longer water persists on a planetary body in one location, particularly if there is geological turnover, the more likely it is that it would provide a habitable environment for a suitable duration for life to either originate or proliferate. An ocean would meet this need.” That life was possible does not make it inevitable though. “Of course, it could have been uninhabited,” he added. Nasa scientists find evidence of flowing water on Mars | Science | The Guardian Mars Nasa scientists find evidence of flowing water on Mars Researchers say discovery of stains from summertime flows down cliffs and crater walls increases chance of finding life on red planet Monday 28 September 2015 11.00 EDT Last modified on Thursday 15 December 2016 11.28 EST Close This article is 1 year old Liquid water runs down canyons and crater walls over the summer months on Mars , according to researchers who say the discovery raises the chances of being home to some form of life.

The trickles leave long, dark stains on the Martian terrain that can reach hundreds of metres downhill in the warmer months, before they dry up in the autumn as surface temperatures drop. Images taken from the Mars orbit show cliffs, and the steep walls of valleys and craters, streaked with summertime flows that in the most active spots combine to form intricate fan-like patterns. Scientists are unsure where the water comes from, but it may rise up from underground ice or salty aquifers, or condense out of the thin Martian atmosphere. Mars find suggests our solar system is awash with life | Letters Read more “There is liquid water today on the surface of Mars,” Michael Meyer , the lead scientist on Nasa’s Mars exploration programme, told the Guardian. “Because of this, we suspect that it is at least possible to have a habitable environment today.” A visual guide to water on Mars Read more The water flows could point Nasa and other space agencies towards the most promising sites to find life on Mars, and to landing spots for future human missions where water can be collected from a natural supply. “Mars is not the dry, arid planet that we thought of in the past,” said Nasa’s Jim Green.

“Liquid water has been found on Mars.” Some of the earliest missions to Mars revealed a planet with a watery past. Pictures beamed back to Earth in the 1970s showed a surface crossed by dried-up rivers and plains once submerged beneath vast ancient lakes. Earlier this year , Nasa unveiled evidence of an ocean that might have covered half of the planet’s northern hemisphere in the distant past. Pinterest Dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae emanate out of the walls of Garni crater on Mars. Photograph: Nasa/AFP/Getty Images But occasionally, Mars probes have found hints that the planet might still be wet. Nearly a decade ago, Nasa’s Mars Global Surveyor took pictures of what appeared to be water bursting through a gully wall and flowing around boulders and other rocky debris. In 2011, the high-resolution camera on Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured what looked like little streams flowing down crater walls from late spring to early autumn. Not wanting to assume too much, mission scientists named the flows “recurring slope lineae” or RSL. Researchers have now turned to another instrument on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to analyse the chemistry of the mysterious RSL flows.

Lujendra Ojha , of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and his colleagues used a spectrometer on the MRO to look at infrared light reflected off steep rocky walls when the dark streaks had just begun to appear, and when they had grown to full length at the end of the Martian summer. Water on the red planet: Nasa reveals major discovery – in pictures Read more Writing in the journal Nature Geosciences , the team describes how it found infra-red signatures for hydrated salts when the dark flows were present, but none before they had grown. The hydrated salts – a mix of chlorates and perchlorates – are a smoking gun for the presence of water at all four sites inspected: the Hale, Palikir and Horowitz craters, and a large canyon called Coprates Chasma. “These may be the best places to search for extant life near the surface of Mars,” said Alfred McEwen, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona and senior author on the study. “While it would be very important to find evidence of ancient life, it would be difficult to understand the biology. Current life would be much more informative.” The flows only appear when the surface of Mars rises above -23C.

The water can run in such frigid conditions because the salts lower the freezing point of water, keeping it liquid far below 0C. “The mystery has been, what is permitting this flow? Presumably water, but until now, there has been no spectral signature,” Meyer said. “From this, we conclude that the RSL are generated by water interacting with perchlorates, forming a brine that flows downhill.” Pinterest These channels, which are between 1 metre and 10 metres wide, are on a scarp in the Hellas impact basin. Photograph: Nasa/Reuters John Bridges , a professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester, said the study was fascinating, but might throw up some fresh concerns for space agencies. The flows could be used to find water sources on Mars, making them prime spots to hunt for life, and to land future human missions. But agencies were required to do their utmost to avoid contaminating other planets with microbes from Earth, making wet areas the most difficult to visit. “This will give them lots to think about,” he said. For now, researchers are focused on learning where the water comes from.

Porous rocks under the Martian surface might hold frozen water that melts in the summer months and seeps up to the surface. The Guardian view on the discovery of liquid water on Mars: cause for great celebration | Editorial Read more Another possibility is that highly concentrated saline aquifers are dotted around beneath the surface, not as pools of water, but as saturated volumes of gritty rock. These could cause flows in some areas, but cannot easily explain water seeping down from the top of crater walls. A third possibility, and one favoured by McEwen, is that salts on the Martian surface absorb water from the atmosphere until they have enough to run downhill. The process, known as deliquescence, is seen in the Atacama desert, where the resulting damp patches are the only known place for microbes to live. “It’s a fascinating piece of work,” Bridges said. “Our view of Mars is changing, and we’ll be discussing this for a long time to come.” Fresh evidence for how water reached Earth found in asteroid debris Fresh evidence for how water reached Earth found in asteroid debris May 7, 2015 Artist's impression of a rocky and water-rich asteroid being torn apart by the strong gravity of the white dwarf star.

Similar objects in the Solar System likely delivered the bulk of water on Earth and represent the building blocks of the terrestrial planets. Credit: copyright Mark A. Garlick, space-art.co.uk, University of Warwick Water delivery via asteroids or comets is likely taking place in many other planetary systems, just as it happened on Earth, new research strongly suggests. Published by the Royal Astronomical Society and led by the University of Warwick, the research finds evidence for numerous planetary bodies, including asteroids and comets, containing large amounts of water. The research findings add further support to the possibility water can be delivered to Earth-like planets via such bodies to create a suitable environment for the formation of life. Commenting on the findings lead researcher Dr Roberto Raddi, of the University of Warwick's Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, said:"Our research has found that, rather than being unique, water-rich asteroids similar to those found in our Solar System appear to be frequent. Accordingly, many of planets may have contained a volume of water, comparable to that contained in the Earth. "It is believed that the Earth was initially dry, but our research strongly supports the view that the oceans we have today were created as a result of impacts by water-rich comets or asteroids".

In observations obtained at the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands, the University of Warwick astronomers detected a large quantity of hydrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere of a white dwarf (known as SDSS J1242+5226). The quantities found provide the evidence that a water-rich exo- asteroid was disrupted and eventually delivered the water it contained onto the star. The asteroid, the researchers discovered, was comparable in size to Ceres - at 900km across, the largest asteroid in the Solar System. "The amount of water found SDSS J1242+5226 is equivalent to 30-35% of the oceans on Earth", explained Dr Raddi. The impact of water-rich asteroids or comets onto a planet or white dwarf results in the mixing of hydrogen and oxygen into the atmosphere. Both elements were detected in large amounts in SDSS J1242+5226. Research co-author Professor Boris Gänsicke, also of University of Warwick, explained: "Oxygen, which is a relatively heavy element, will sink deep down over time, and hence a while after the disruption event is over, it will no longer be visible.

"In contrast, hydrogen is the lightest element; it will always remain floating near the surface of the white dwarf where it can easily be detected. There are many white dwarfs that hold large amounts of hydrogen in their atmospheres, and this new study suggests that this is evidence that water-rich asteroids or comets are common around other stars than the Sun". The research, Likely detection of water-rich asteroid debris in a metal-polluted white dwarf, is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Watery asteroid discovered in dying star points to habitable exoplanets October 10, 2013 Astronomers have found the shattered remains of an asteroid that contained huge amounts of water orbiting an exhausted star, or white dwarf. This suggests that the star GD 61 and its planetary system – located about 150 ... The solar system and beyond is awash in water April 8, 2015 As NASA missions explore our solar system and search for new worlds, they are finding water in surprising places. Water is but one piece of our search for habitable planets and life beyond Earth, yet it links many seemingly ...

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Question: In 2015 evidence of water was found on?
Answer: Mars