Breaking: NASA Says Water Flows on Mars - Update

[PatrickJS]

Breaking: NASA Says Water Flows on Mars - Update

Ahead of NASA's upcoming big announcement about the red planet, a paper published by the European Planetary Science Congress might have ruined the surprise: it confirms the presence of flowing salt water on Mars.

Update: NASA's conference is live [http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv], and confirms our suspicions - there is definitively liquid salt water on the Mars, flowing even as I type this.

Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology led the team that made the discovery. "It's unambiguous evidence that liquid water is flowing on Mars," he says. The paper is published in Nature Geoscience [http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo2546.html].

Original Story: NASA major Mars announcement [http://myfox8.com/2015/09/26/nasa-to-reveal-big-news-about-mars-on-monday-says-its-a-major-science-finding/] for a few days now, but it looks like the European Planetary Science Congress beat them to the punch: at long last, astronomers can officially confirm the presence of flowing, salty water on the red planet.

For a long time, scientists and amateurs alike have been waiting for just this discovery [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/140438-NASAs-Curiosity-Rover-May-Prove-Mars-Has-Liquid-Water-After-All]. Water, of course, is a key ingredient to life as we know it - and its liquid presence on another planet is very exciting to anyone even remotely curious about the possibilities for extraterrestrial life. What creatures might swim in Mars' briny rivers?

Check out the gallery below for a high-res version of an artist's rendering of what Mars might have once looked like with a liquid ocean, courtesy of Wikipedia - not to mention a few of our other favorite views of the red planet:

[gallery=4770]

But water means much more than that. It does not just mean our neighbor once hosted life, or perhaps still does - what might happen to us in the far future [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141917-On-the-menu-is-the-first-food-grown-in-outer-space-on-board-the-ISS#&gid=gallery_4501&pid=1]; what could have happened.

The discovery in particular concerns brine, or very salty water. The assumption had long been that fresh water would too easily freeze on Mars' surface; apparently, the red planet's rivers have some built-in anti-freeze.

We'll update this post once NASA makes their official announcement; in the meantime, discuss the news in our forums! References to Total Recall [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/scienceandtech/columns/forscience/12356-How-Long-Can-A-Human-Survive-in-Space-How-Fast-Would-You-Die.2] are highly encouraged.

Source: EPSC [http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2015/EPSC2015-838-1.pdf]




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[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Or they could not?
I mean the possibilities are literally endless!

 

[hentropy]

I was expecting the announcement that the rovers had developed intelligence and were rebelling against their masters, quickly reproducing into a race of synthetic beings biding their time before invading Earth and establishing world peace by linking us into a single networked intelligence.

Salty water is neat too, though.

 

[Wiggum Esquilax]

No spoilers!

First we drop an actor there, then we find out if he can survive.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Shit. They found my martian pot garden.

 

[Renegade-pizza]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but water does not mean life. Its just a good place to start looking.

 

[sibrenfetter]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but water does not mean life. Its just a good place to start looking.

and that is why it says key-ingredient in the artcile.....

the article contiunously states there MIGHT be life

nowhere it is stated that water = life

 

[FalloutJack]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but water does not mean life. Its just a good place to start looking.

You've heard of the phrase "Where there's life, there's hope"? Well, where there's water, there's hope of life since life on Earth began in oceans. Ergo, for the same reasons we're so interested in Pluto and Europa, the presence of water is a good indicator that life is possible. The water makes for a persuasive argument and flowing water even more-so, since circulation beats stagnation any day. For even while the atmosphere and the surroundings may be different, or that the dirt composition may support one thing more than the other, there are so very many things that exist or have existed in water, need water to have lived, and ignore so much that could be wrong with a world because the whole of their habitat is watery in nature. Suffice to say, the idea that life present (or having been present at one time) because of water is infinitely more compelling than life without it, so looking for it is ultimately the best benchmark to work with.

Now, the only REAL problem is if we find Ice Warriors...

 

[FirstNameLastName]

So there might be salt water on Mars, which might make it possible for life to survive, which might mean life already exists or existed? Hooray, I guess.
In all seriousness, as much as I love science, and the cosmos in particular, I just can't get excited over speculative reporting on scientific breakthroughs. The media just handles it badly. Everything is pumped up in order to grab attention, and is usually much less significant when you actually read, from the scientists themselves, what has actually been discovered and what it actually means. We've been a few years away from discovering life on Mars for a long time now, and I hate to say it, but I have a bad feeling that in a few years time we'll still be a few years away.

 

[Mikeybb]

All we need now then is for Nasa and the other agencies to pull themselves together and, as the big man himself says


I know it's all getting blown up and that we're still years, maybe decades away from any definitive answers, but it still leaves me a bit excited.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I wish NASA wouldn't announce that they plan to announce something.

 

[Strazdas]

is it water on mars or in marks though. because if its just another underground ocean touted as some lush river then thats nothing new. i find it hard to imagine how would water remain on mars surface.

 

[Albino Boo]

Well they just have announced evidence of following water on the surface in the very recent past.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

I wish NASA wouldn't announce that they plan to announce something.

Gives more attention this way, which NASA sadly needs.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I wish NASA wouldn't announce that they plan to announce something.

Gives more attention this way, which NASA sadly needs.

Certainly, I can see why they would do this, it's more or less their only option left, but it's still annoying/embarrassing/depressing.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Certainly, I can see why they would do this, it's more or less their only option left, but it's still annoying/embarrassing/depressing.

Oh I agree whole heartedly.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Well, my fingers were crossed for Prothean ruins, but this'll do.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Phew. For a second there, I thought we were going to be left to perish on this planet alone. All aboard the party bus to Mars! I'll bring the diesel!

 

[Something Amyss]

I was expecting the announcement that the rovers had developed intelligence and were rebelling against their masters, quickly reproducing into a race of synthetic beings biding their time before invading Earth and establishing world peace by linking us into a single networked intelligence.

Salty water is neat too, though.

Well, they're not going to publicise the robot uprising.

nowhere it is stated that water = life

It says:

But water means much more than that. It does not just mean our neighbor once hosted life

Which is probably what's being responded to.

Certainly, I can see why they would do this, it's more or less their only option left, but it's still annoying/embarrassing/depressing.

Could be worse. Activision announced an announcement tarailer announcing they'd announce Black Ops 3. At least they haven't reached that level.

Though NASA's microtransactions are getting out of hand.

 

[Frezzato]

The paper refers to hydrated salts [http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo2546.html], which isn't exactly the image the description that comes to mind when one hears "water". They also list the primary ingredients of these hydrated salts as magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate.

Sounds fun?