NASA photos suggest flow of water on Mars
Find stirs experts searching for life
December 7, 2006
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BY LARRY WHEELER
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
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NASA compared these photos of a crater on Mars and said the gully in the second shows evidence of sediment movement that a water-ice slurry could have caused. The first image is from 1999 and the second from 2005. The fresh deposit is several hundred yards long. (NASA photos)
- Named for: Mars, god of war in Roman mythology. His pantheon portfolio also included death, fertility and cattle.
Size: 4,220 miles in diameter – or a tad better than half the size of Earth.
Distance:
• From the sun (average), 142 million miles.
• From Earth: Varies depending on orbit. In 2003, Mars was its closest to Earth in 60,000 years, a mere 34 million miles.
Time:
• Day is 24 hours 27 minutes.
• Year is 687 Earth days.
Temperature: On average, 81 degrees.
Moons: Phobos (means fear) and Deimos (means panic).
Free Press research
WASHINGTON -- Water may have flowed on the surface of Mars in the last 10 years.The tantalizing declaration was made Wednesday by scientists who said photographs from a satellite orbiting the planet show evidence of sediment and debris sliding down gullies cut into the steep banks of Martian craters.
“The observations suggest that liquid water flowed on the surface of Mars during the past decade,” wrote Michael Malin, who coauthored an article in Science magazine.
The discovery excited scientists who hunt for extraterrestrial living organisms. If it’s confirmed, they say, all the ingredients favorable for life on Mars are in place: liquid water and a stable heat source.
And easily accessible deposits of water could be tapped to sustain fuel for human expeditions to the planet.
Scientists have seen ice on Mars before. But now evidence of liquid water oozing to the Martian surface comes from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, whose camera transmitted pictures of the planet from 1997 until NASA lost contact with the surveyor last month.
“The possibility that liquid water may be coming to the surface of Mars today poses many questions,” Malin wrote. “Where is the water coming from? Can it be used as a resource in further Mars exploration? Finally, has it acted as an agent to promote or sustain a Martian biosphere?”
NASA said Monday it is planning to send astronauts to the planet by 2020. Water on Mars could aid the trip, in that water molecules could be cracked into hydrogen and oxygen to be used as rocket fuel.
