by Richard Milner for Astrobiology Magazine
Moffett Field CA (SPX)
Oct 07, 2011
In a remarkable discovery, images taken over the past five years by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which circles Mars to photograph the planet, seem to indicate the presence of water there.
For decades, space scientists searched the red planet without detecting the life-sustaining liquid, and concluded that it was bone-dry.
Last August, however, scientists found dozens of slopes across the southern hemisphere of Mars where previously undetected dark streaks come and go with the seasons.
When the planet heats up, the streaks appear and expand downhill, and disappear when it gets cold. Scientists think it may be evidence of melted, salty water running down slopes during the Martian summer.
Five image sequences from the Newton crater and one from the Horowitz crater show the black lines appearing near the tops of slopes and then growing into scores of "streaks" that remain for months until the cold weather returns and they disappear. At Newton Crater, photos indicate as many as 1,000 of these possible streams flowing down the slopes and into a basin.
If confirmed, the discovery would fundamentally change our understanding of Mars, lending support to the theory that the planet was once far more wet and warm, and would renew hope that it may be able to support life.
But before back around 120 years ago, at least one prominent astronomer was convinced that Mars not only supported life, but was home to an advanced civilization that built an extensive network of canals to draw water down from supposed icecaps at the red planet's poles to irrigate a world that was drying out...
Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Tracing_the_Canals_of_Mars_999.html.
Moffett Field CA (SPX)
Oct 07, 2011
In a remarkable discovery, images taken over the past five years by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which circles Mars to photograph the planet, seem to indicate the presence of water there.
For decades, space scientists searched the red planet without detecting the life-sustaining liquid, and concluded that it was bone-dry.
Last August, however, scientists found dozens of slopes across the southern hemisphere of Mars where previously undetected dark streaks come and go with the seasons.
When the planet heats up, the streaks appear and expand downhill, and disappear when it gets cold. Scientists think it may be evidence of melted, salty water running down slopes during the Martian summer.
Five image sequences from the Newton crater and one from the Horowitz crater show the black lines appearing near the tops of slopes and then growing into scores of "streaks" that remain for months until the cold weather returns and they disappear. At Newton Crater, photos indicate as many as 1,000 of these possible streams flowing down the slopes and into a basin.
If confirmed, the discovery would fundamentally change our understanding of Mars, lending support to the theory that the planet was once far more wet and warm, and would renew hope that it may be able to support life.
But before back around 120 years ago, at least one prominent astronomer was convinced that Mars not only supported life, but was home to an advanced civilization that built an extensive network of canals to draw water down from supposed icecaps at the red planet's poles to irrigate a world that was drying out...
Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Tracing_the_Canals_of_Mars_999.html.
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