NASA found water in Mars

NASA believes it has found salt water in Mars

NASA announced Thursday the discovery of surface stains on the sides of Mars that could be formed by salt water , opening again a possibility of finding life on Mars.

We are very pleased with this discovery The discovery was made by analyzing a series of images taken by the Imaging Science Experiment High Resolution (HiRISE) of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which explores the red planet since 2006.

The director of scientific research on Mars exploration program at NASA , Michael Meyer made the announcement at a press conference along with professor Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, among other team members.

"We are very pleased with this discovery, but it is the beginning of a process just beginning," said McEwen.

Mars has no definitive proof that there are now active liquid water on the surface of the planet , although it has been detected frozen water near the surface in mid-latitude regions, and high.

They explained that these groups of dark lines could perhaps be formed by a flow of salt water, but for now this is only a hypothesis, since the observations reported in this first phase of the study does not prove it.

An option "highly speculative"

Lisa Pratt, biochemistry and geologist at the University of Indiana, said one option is still "highly speculative" but if confirmed it is a fluid reopen the possibility of finding microbes on Mars.

The studied images cover a variety of latitudes and covering a period of about three Martian years. Each Martian year equals 687 Earth days.

"The best explanation for our observations so far is that it is a stream of brackish water, although this study does not prove it, "said McEwen, HiRISE principal investigator and lead author of the research published Friday in the journal Science .

The discovery of salt water would be important for future studies on the existence of life on Mars and for understanding the history of water on Mars.

"It's hard to imagine that (spots) are formed by anything other than the liquid seeps down the sides , "said another author of the study, Richard Zurek of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA He points out that the question is whether Mars is the same phenomenon happening and why in those places.