NASA announced today that recent photos of the surface of Mars indicate that the fourth planet from the Sun isn’t the barren desert we’ve thought that it is:
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — A provocative new study of photographs taken from orbit suggests that liquid water flowed on the surface of Mars as recently as several years ago, raising the possibility that the red planet could harbor an environment favorable to life.
The crisp images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor do not directly show water. Rather, they show apparently recent changes in surface features that provide the strongest evidence yet that water even now sometimes flows on the dusty, frigid world. Water and a stable heat source are considered keys for life to emerge.
Until now, the question of liquid water has focused on ancient Mars, and on the Martian north pole, where water ice has been detected. Scientists have long noted Martian features that appear to have been scoured by water or look like shorelines, and have tried to prove that the red planet had liquid water eons ago.
“This underscores the importance of searching for life on Mars, either present or past,” said Bruce Jakosky, an astrobiologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who had no role in the study. “It’s one more reason to think that life could be there.”
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NASA’s durable Mars rovers have sent scientists strong evidence that the planet once had liquid water at or near the surface, based on observations of alterations in ancient rocks.
“We’re now realizing Mars is more active than we previously thought and that the mid-latitude section seems to be where all the action is,” said Arizona State University scientist Phil Christensen, who was not part of the current research.
In a word, cool.
Sample photos below the fold.
December 6th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Why is it that we don’t hear serious calls yet to start terraforming Mars? If we’re going to get there eventually, we want as much plant material and atmosphere as we can possibly get. Let’s get some hardy organisms shipped up there and producing oxygen!
December 6th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
Brad,
I’m with you. I’m not quite sure that science is to the point where terraforming is a realistic possibility, but I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be talking about it. Like Stephan Hawking said last week, we need to get the heck off this rock if we’re gonna survive and Mars seems like a good place to start.
Of course, all of that is contingent on whether terraforming will receive approval from the Mars Protection Agency (MPA) and the Sierra Club