Strongest evidence yet: Signs of liquid ‘water’ found on Mars

PARIS: Scientists announced on Monday “the strongest evidence yet” of liquid water on Mars, raising the distant prospect of microscopic life on the planet. A team of scientists at Nasa said lines running down steep slopes on the surface of the Red Planet may be streaks of super-salty brine. Evidence of “hydrated” salt minerals in the streaks “strongly support the hypothesis” of liquid water on Mars -- though not H2O as we know it, concluded a research paper in the journal Nature Geoscience. If anything, it was likely “wet soil, not free water sitting on the surface,” study co-author Alfred McEwen said. NASA said the findings, made with its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, “provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2015.