Washington, Sept 30: The search for extra-terrestrial life just got a big boost from NASA’s stunning announcement that it now has its strongest evidence yet of liquid water on Mars.
So did the prospects for human exploration of the red planet because the presence of flowing water could help sustain future manned missions, NASA scientists say. “We now have great opportunities to be on the right locations on Mars to fully investigate the existence of life on Mars,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science missions.
The evidence advanced by the space agency Monday centers on some unusual streaks found on steep slopes on the Martian surface. A team of experts concluded in a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience that water played a vital role in the formation of the lines because of the presence of hydrated salt minerals, which contain water molecules. NASA said the findings “provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.” “The exciting thing about this announcement is the confirmation of what we suspected — that this is due to some kind of water feature,” Grunsfeld said.
Some day, he said, a manned mission will go to Mars and retrieve samples from the area where the streaks were found by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. AFP
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