NASA finds water flowing on Mars

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. Water exists in liquid form on the surface of Mars, Nasa scientists have said, making it possible for life to be sustained on the Red Planet.

“Armenpress” reports referring to The Telegraph that Nasa hailed the “strongest evidence yet” of intermittent flows of briny water on Mars after scientists identified hydrated salts in dark streaks that ebb and flow down the planet’s slopes.

The dark marks, which appear in summer months, are thought to be caused by the salty water wicking up from a shallow flow beneath the surface – although the origins of the briny flows remain a mystery.

The water appears to exist in the form of “thin layers of wet soil", rather than pools of standing water, Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, one of the scientists who made the finding using new imaging techniques said.

The discovery of liquid water means Mars is “not the dry, arid planet that we thought of in the past”, Jim Green, Nasa’s director of planetary science said.

Crucially, it “suggests that it would be possible for there to be life today on Mars”, John Grunsfeld, Nasa's science mission chief, said.

Water is essential to life as we know it on Earth – and on Earth, wherever there is water there is also life, the scientists said.

However, it is not yet known whether the briny water discovered on Mars may be too salty to support terrestrial life forms.

Photo by NASA