Each and every new rover, lander or orbiters sent to MARS in recent times are finding out more evidence of water on the Red Planet. We all know that water is necessary for life but whether any thing has ever lived on Mars is still a mystery.
The Curiosity Rover's landing site on Mars, the Gale Crater used to hold a lake of water as announced by scientists on 11th Dec., 2013 at the American Geophysical Union meting in San Franscisco. Scientists analyzed the photographs taken by the Mars Rconnaissance Orbiter and they report that liquid water appears to be darkening the slopes of mountains near the Martian equator - the first time strong indication of present-day water being seen in this region.
Curiosity found evidence for a former lake, about the size of one of New York State's Finger Lakes, in a region called Yellowknife Bay. There, the rover drilled two holes to study subsurface geology and chemistry. By baking these rock samples in its SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) oven and analyzing the gases they produced, Curiosity found carbon dioxide and nitric oxide. Although some quantities of these molecules could have been contamination from Earth, the large amounts seen by SAM suggest they exist on Mars. "This is really important," said Jennifer Eigenbrode of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center at the press conference. "Carbon and nitrogen are required by all life-forms. Therefore [Yellowknife Bay] could have supported life."
Water was not just a fixture of Mars' past—it could be surprisingly abundant in the present as well. In 2001 researchers announced they had seen what looked like flowing water on mid-latitude Martian slopes. Now the same team, led by Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, reports similar dark slope features near the equator based on observations from orbit by MRO. "If our interpretation that this is due to water is correct, then it means the near-surface equatorial region is wetter than we thought," McEwen says. "This is really puzzling. It implies there's a surprisingly active water cycle, given that it hasn’t rained in so long there."
The Curiosity Rover's landing site on Mars, the Gale Crater used to hold a lake of water as announced by scientists on 11th Dec., 2013 at the American Geophysical Union meting in San Franscisco. Scientists analyzed the photographs taken by the Mars Rconnaissance Orbiter and they report that liquid water appears to be darkening the slopes of mountains near the Martian equator - the first time strong indication of present-day water being seen in this region.
Curiosity found evidence for a former lake, about the size of one of New York State's Finger Lakes, in a region called Yellowknife Bay. There, the rover drilled two holes to study subsurface geology and chemistry. By baking these rock samples in its SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) oven and analyzing the gases they produced, Curiosity found carbon dioxide and nitric oxide. Although some quantities of these molecules could have been contamination from Earth, the large amounts seen by SAM suggest they exist on Mars. "This is really important," said Jennifer Eigenbrode of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center at the press conference. "Carbon and nitrogen are required by all life-forms. Therefore [Yellowknife Bay] could have supported life."
Water was not just a fixture of Mars' past—it could be surprisingly abundant in the present as well. In 2001 researchers announced they had seen what looked like flowing water on mid-latitude Martian slopes. Now the same team, led by Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, reports similar dark slope features near the equator based on observations from orbit by MRO. "If our interpretation that this is due to water is correct, then it means the near-surface equatorial region is wetter than we thought," McEwen says. "This is really puzzling. It implies there's a surprisingly active water cycle, given that it hasn’t rained in so long there."
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