New Evidence For Martian Water

Scientists studying images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found slopes on the surface of Mars have channels that seem to have been cut by liquid water flowing on the surface. The channels appear in lower lattitude areas, where temperatures can climb to levels that would allow liquid water to exist. Further, the channels seem to change with the seasons, drying up in winter and expanding in the spring, a pattern consistent with water freezing in winter and flowing again in the warmer springtime.

Science has been comfortable for several years saying water ice existed in the Martian polar caps and underground. The channels in the slopes suggests liquid salty water has flowed recently on the surface-- and may exist even today, at least near the equator during the warmer seasons. "Warmer" in a Mars context is relative, of course. The land that may support this water is similar to permafrost in Siberia.

Flowing water, of course, increases the chances for life on Mars. Perhaps even more importantly, it increases the chances for life in places we could reach easily, first with rovers and later with human explorers.