NASA scientists have discovered new evidence that water flowed on Mars for several months the warmest on the Red Planet. According to the United States space agencies that this finding raises the possibility that there might be life there.
NASA was first discovered evidence of water on Mars more than a decade ago, but the early indication is that most of the water is frozen and concentrated in its two poles.
The image was analyzed recently from NASA Orbiter Reconnissance who has traveled around the planet is dark conditions showed a similar finger that extends across multiple slopes of Mars during the spring until the summer, and disappears in winter.
"This is the best evidence we have about liquid water that appears today on Mars," said Philip Christensen geophysical experts at Arizona State University, in a NASA panel that announced the findings, as reported by Reuters on Friday (5 / 8).
NASA scientists believe that if flowing, liquid water exists on Mars, it will be very salty water. That would explain why the water is not frozen beneath the planet's cold temperatures.
"It's more like syrup, perhaps, in a way flows," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Chief Investigator for NASA's High Resolution Satellite Imagin Science Experiment.
"Water is shining bright and flowing on Mars - if any - may be somewhat different than the clear water," said McEwen, leader author of the report of the evidence that water flowed on Mars were published the journal Science, Thursday edition.
Lisa Pratt, a biochemist at Indiana University who became part of a NASA panel that discusses these results, said the findings were important.
"It was the first opportunity to see the environment on Mars that could enable the delivery of an active biological process, if there is current life on Mars," said Pratt.