While it’s yet to be determined if there is actually life on Mars, we now know that if there is, it isn’t thirsty.
On Monday, Sept. 28, NASA confirmed the discovery of liquid water flowing on the planet’s surface.
“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, in a release from NASA. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water — albeit briny — is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”
The discovery comes nearly 40 years after the Viking landers — Viking 1 and Viking 2 — made first contact on the planet on July 20, 1976 and Sept. 3, 1976, respectively.
The water spring was found by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which was launched on Aug. 12, 2015.
While this does not necessarily confirm the long-suspected hypothesis of life on other planets, it does offer excitement to those who support the idea.
“This is tremendously exciting,” said James L. Green, the director of NASA’s planetary science division, during a news conference on Monday. “We haven’t been able to answer the question, ‘Does life exist beyond Earth?’ But following the water is a critical element of that. We now have, I think, great opportunities in the right locations on Mars to thoroughly investigate that.”
NASA detailed the discovery in the release on Monday:
“Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.”
According to NASA, the MRO returns more data about Mars than the weekly total of all other active Mars missions. It has also orbited the planet more than 40,000 times and returned over 250 terabits of data.
For more information on the discovery, and NASA’s ongoing projects, click here.
