NASA Finds 'Definitive' Liquid Water on Mars

[buksida]

Water trickles down gullies and crater walls on the surface of Mars, raising intriguing questions about whether life could exist on the red planet.

The findings are the strongest evidence yet that liquid water darkens the Martian surface today; we've known for years that water flowed on Mars long ago.

Described Monday in Nature Geoscience, the observations suggest that this water appears seasonally, forming dark lines as it tumbles down steep Martian slopes. But scientists still don’t know where the water is coming from, or if the chemistry is even right for supporting life.

For now, the find solves the mystery of dark streaks that appear and disappear seasonally, called recurring slope lineae. These are "among the most confusing, mysterious landforms there are,” says Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary geologist at Caltech.

Long, dark and fleeting, the streaks were first spotted in 2010 by Lujendra Ojha, then an undergraduate at the University of Arizona. Ojha was studying images returned to Earth from the HiRISE camera, aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. At the time, he says, he had no clue how important his observation would be.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015 ... astronomy/

[arcadianagain]

I`m sure this all very exciting for those who care about such things and it could mean microbes might exist on Mars, also it might be meaningful to mankind in thousands of years, but, I for one think water for those without it in the world today is more important. Spend the money on space research by all means but only when hunger and thirst have been eradicated on our own planet.

[PeteC]

^ I really agree with that, and money used for other urgent matters such as my signature below indicates. Pete

[buksida]

Absolutely ...

There may be flowing water on Mars. But is there intelligent life on Earth?
Evidence for flowing water on Mars: this opens up the possibility of life, of wonders we cannot begin to imagine. Its discovery is an astonishing achievement. Meanwhile, Martian scientists continue their search for intelligent life on Earth.

We may be captivated by the thought of organisms on another planet, but we seem to have lost interest in our own. The Oxford Junior Dictionary has been excising the waymarks of the living world. Adders, blackberries, bluebells, conkers, holly, magpies, minnows, otters, primroses, thrushes, weasels and wrens are now surplus to requirements.

In the past four decades, the world has lost 50% of its vertebrate wildlife. But across the latter half of this period, there has been a steep decline in media coverage. In 2014, according to a study at Cardiff University, there were as many news stories broadcast by the BBC and ITV about Madeleine McCann (who went missing in 2007) as there were about the entire range of environmental issues.

Think of what would change if we valued terrestrial water as much as we value the possibility of water on Mars. Only 3% of the water on this planet is fresh; and of that, two-thirds is frozen. Yet we lay waste to the accessible portion. Sixty per cent of the water used in farming is needlessly piddled away by careless irrigation. Rivers, lakes and aquifers are sucked dry, while what remains is often so contaminated that it threatens the lives of those who drink it. In the UK, domestic demand is such that the upper reaches of many rivers disappear during the summer. Yet still we install clunky old toilets and showers that gush like waterfalls.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... ?CMP=fb_gu

[Khundon1975]

For the life of me, I just don't understand the fascination with Mars.
OK, send a couple of scientist's there, pick up a few rocks and leave it at that.

Why spend Billions of $$$ on it?

As humans, we are doing a real good job of F@@@@@g up the planet we are living on now, what is the point of going to Mars, to try to establish a colony there, when history will just be repeated there.

If governments of this World cannot come together and sort out the serious problems we have with what we are doing to the environment here, just what do they think they can do on Mars, that is going to help save the human race from our stupidity.

Some believe,(dream more like!) that some day, we will travel to habitable planets within the Milky Way, those are the ones that have never heard the name Einstein.

When the Polar bears are gone, we won't be far behind them.

My advice, move to somewhere high, or you are going to get your feet wet.

Bob Dylan sang it years ago and he was out of his head most of the time.

"Come gather round people, where ever you roam and admit that the waters around your head foam"

[HHTel]

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

[Khundon1975]

HHTel

I knew it was something like that.