Today NASA announced a pretty huge scientific finding about Mars, and sadly it had nothing to do with aliens. Well, not directly.
In a press conference today in Washington D.C., scientists announced that liquid water has been found on the red planet, making past and present life a viable possibility.
“We now know Mars was once a planet very much like Earth with warm salty seas and fresh water lakes,” Jim Green, planetary science director at NASA, said at a news conference. “But something has happened to Mars, it lost its water.”
The agency called a news conference for Monday to discuss what was referred to as “a major science finding.” Prior to the announcement, little was revealed regarding what the finding might be.
Imagery taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed that salty water flowing down various slopes is responsible for seasonal dark streaks seen in spots on the planet’s surface.
Here’s what it looks like:
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Researchers don’t yet know where the water is coming from.
“Something is hydrating these salts, and it appears to be these streaks that come and go with the seasons,” Lujendra Ojha, a researcher from Georgia Tech said in a statement “This means the water on Mars is briny, rather than pure. It makes sense because salts lower the freezing point of water.”
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