Flowing Water On Mars? NASA Reports Stunning New Discovery

NASA reported on Thursday that new pictures revealing "dark, finger-like features" on Mars that change seasonally indicate the possibility of flowing salt-water on the Red Planet.

The pictures were captured by its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), a craft launched in 2005.

"NASA's Mars Exploration Program keeps bringing us closer to determining whether the Red Planet could harbor life in some form," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in the statement, "and it reaffirms Mars as an important future destination for human exploration."

From NASA:

Dark, finger-like features appear and extend down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer, fade in winter, and return during the next spring. Repeated observations have tracked the seasonal changes in these recurring features on several steep slopes in the middle latitudes of Mars' southern hemisphere.

This animation includes images that, according to NASA, span "from early spring of one Mars year to mid-summer of the following year." They were taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the MRO.

Click here for more on the images.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

According to ABC News, NASA has been looking for water on Mars for 15 years.

In 2008, the Phoenix spacecraft saw falling snow and found minerals in soil that indicated that there could have been a presence of water at one time.

A full report will be published in Friday's edition of Science.

WATCH: Video via CNN:

Comments

[jennielake]

08:00 PM on 08/12/2011

I wonder if people can see that Religion is only a concept on Earth - like Republican & Nascar - lol

It is only a Belief System and the Real World is an amazing place - if they could only see it.

We live on a big blue planet, with a universe full of mysteries, and yet many are parked in their mind and will never see past the beliefs that hold them back.

Hugs to all my open minded friends who love to explore what we yet dont know.... and even then we learn more and more... our evolution and future depends on us having an open mind.

[hawkeye2011]

08:45 PM on 08/09/2011

Here is something to comment on: NASA Mars photo leaked – wood found on mars! : thecrit.com
thecrit.com/2008/08/.../nasa-mars-photo-leaked-wood-found-on-ma... - CachedSimilar
You +1'd this publicly. Undo
Aug 5, 2008 – NASA Mars photo leaked – wood found on mars! ... The Viking photographs show more than just a few trees but rather thousands upon thousand ...

[Palspal2]

09:58 AM on 08/08/2011

If there were water on Mars the Bible would have mentioned it.

[mamacat]

04:48 AM on 08/08/2011

There was an article in Scientific American a few years ago giving an estimate of how Venus's atmosphere came to be in its current state. For practical purposes, Venus and Earth are the same size, with the same gravity.

In its beginning the Sun gave out at least 30% less energy. At that time, Venus, it was asserted, had liquid water oceans. As the Sun heated up a tipping point was reached, it was estimated by the researcher whose article was published, and it took only 200,000 years for all of the Venusian oceans to completely evaporate.

Today the Earth is in this Solar System's "green belt", but, by some estimations, within another one billion years the Sun will have continued to heat up to the point that life as we know it will no longer be possible on this planet.

In another billion years the surface of Mars may be much warmer, but it's gravity will still be insufficient to hold much of an atmosphere, and without a magnetic field, the surface of Mars, unlike the Earth, will continue to be bombarded by the solar wind.

[mamacat]

04:07 AM on 08/08/2011

I think a lot of us wish that there were another planet in this solar system that was similar to Earth. Mars turns out to be a little bit similar, and a whole lot different. Still, it is a fascinating place to learn about.

Too bad we don't have a surface lander in place to do some up-close examination of an area that looks like it has underground water. IMO Olympus Mons would be an interesting place to investigate, as well.

[DH-73]

09:27 PM on 08/07/2011

Interesting the very people who believe God crated every thing in the Universe don't believe that he many have created life somewhere else besides on the earth.

[JimSales]

03:01 PM on 08/08/2011

Ain't it though? And what about the wacko above? After all, the planet is only 6,000 years old, cause that's when the mean old man in the sky, who loves and watches over us, and is only responsible for the good stuff, made it! Praise be!

[Wicasta]

06:30 PM on 08/07/2011

The level of stupidity found in comments on stories by the average American is breath-taking in its scope.

[Highball]

08:07 PM on 08/07/2011

It really is sad.

[Larry Wadosky]

11:30 PM on 08/06/2011

In outer space there's no oxygen. It's utterly impossible for water to be in outspace.

[orbitxal1]

12:34 AM on 08/07/2011

A large cloud of what appears to be water was detected around a distant black hole in space. Oxygen has also been recently detected. Its likely not like the water and oxygen we are used to here on Earth.

[68Namvet]

11:58 AM on 08/07/2011

Um - the claim is that there MIGHT be water flowing on Mars - what has that got to do with "outer space"?

[Jonathan Van Voorhees]

05:35 PM on 08/06/2011

Maybe we could send the Tea Party and their Republican friends there to rule that planet however they want. That means the rest of us here get to run this planet the way we want ;-)

[JimSales]

11:23 PM on 08/06/2011

Like the good little fascists you are? After all, What is a Liberal? Someone who screams equal rights for everyone--providing they think exactly as I do! And may your personal deity help you if you don't!

[68Namvet]

12:00 PM on 08/07/2011

Um - Wha????

[Dimitri Lazarescu]

12:07 PM on 08/07/2011

In case you didn't have the time to look it up;

lib·er·al   [lib-er-uhl, lib-ruhl] adjective

1. favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.
2. ( often initial capital letter ) noting or pertaining to a political party advocating measures of progressive political reform.
3. of, pertaining to, based on, or advocating liberalism.
4. favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.
5. favoring or permitting freedom of action, especially with respect to matters of personal belief or expression: a liberal policy toward dissident artists and writers.

Ho0pe this will clear some of the confusion in your mind. Have a nice day!

[chriscp12]

01:25 PM on 08/07/2011

Jonathen.-That is really a stupid thing to say.You are the type or person who needs to be in outer space.

[VietnamVeteran]

02:50 PM on 08/06/2011

We are well on our way to serious climate change. It may take awhile, but this planet will look similar to Mars one day. HOT.

Please stop looking up and look down to our oceans with 90% depletion of most fish species we use to enjoy. Had any Orange Roughy lately? Heavy commercial fishing nets are destroying coral beds where a lot of life in the ocean begins. Please read Oceana. Some out of work NASA engineers could help. Remember, Bush said, let's go to Mars, after invading Afghanistan.

[Endotoxin]

09:09 PM on 08/06/2011

I hear once the coral reefs are destroyed we are officially on environmental Defcon 3. We were nearly there with that whole Ozone layer fiasco in the 90's. According to NASA we would have all died if CFCs were not banned. It's very frightening viewing Ozone concentrations at 1974 vs projected ozone in 2060 (I will probably still be alive then!!!) There is virtually no Ozone left in that projection. Would we have all been fried to a crisp? Jesus.

If people think dying alone is bad try viewing everyone around you die first in a global catastrophic event that was 100% man made and completely preventable. This will be Bambi x100. This is what is going to happen if the EPA and global environmental agencies do not convene in Kyoto once again and this time around make more aggressive measures to stop multinational companies along with irresponsible reproduction from destroying our habitat.

Imagine waking up one day and suddenly not being able to breathe because o2 levels suddenly dropped for "apparently no reason" in the troposphere. Scientists cannot explain what happened. It's too late and half the population drops dead on the spot. Who do we have to blame? God? No. God warned us of something like this millenias ago.

The very things we take for granted in the laws of earth chemistry, biology and physics could be completely turned upside down if man does not take responsibility for his effects on his only known home in the universe.

[mamacat]

06:04 AM on 08/08/2011

The Earth's biosphere is in crisis, and it is a man-made crisis.

[Ajax Johnson]

01:00 AM on 08/06/2011

looks like shadows in a setting sun

[abuckley23]

12:44 AM on 08/06/2011

If Arnie can go there then pretty much anyone can...

[JimSales]

12:22 AM on 08/06/2011

Cool Pics. Nevertheless, None of us will ever live to see the colonization of Mars, or any place else north of the Ozone Layer. Sure I know that without NASA, we wouldn't have neat stuff like Velcro, but I still think my future grandchildren will be far more concerned with things like jobs and health care--and in 50-75 years water. As for viable colonization to ease the over populating of this little cosmic out-post, That's a pipe dream. We may as well put those trillions into time travel. The only answer to over population is coming--and soon.

[Dylan Jewel]

03:27 AM on 08/06/2011

You can't go "north" of the ozone layer...

[Tinkerer13]

04:10 PM on 08/07/2011

It was a figure of speech. Way to highlight your IQ.

[Corban]

11:22 AM on 08/06/2011

It will probably work this way: humans will make some baby-steps to do small exploration things like we've been doing then someone from the private sector will make a fortune manufacturing something off-planet and it will be a literal stampede to get out there. When will this happen, who knows? NASA's the stepping-stone that gets the private sector out there. Once the private sector gets out there NASA will probably wither away or be incorporated into the military. People will go off-planet to escape things on Earth like over-population, laws and pollution; these things won't apply out there. The Chinese seem hell-bent to get out there; maybe we will too just to make sure Mars doesn't go Communist.

[oneyippie]

12:59 PM on 08/06/2011

"The Chinese seem hell-bent to get out there; maybe we will too just to make sure Mars doesn't go Communist."

Well they don't call it the "Red Planet" for nothing!

[JimSales]

12:01 AM on 08/07/2011

Fine! Let the private sector use all the stock holder money it wants! I think that's the point. To hell with NASA and their development of technologies that tax payers fund and their contractors, sub-contractors--and their share holders--profit from.

As for the Still-Red Chinese. If we don't give them the technology, they can't 'make' a T-shirt. That's a cultural fact. The concepts of innovative analysis and critical thought are beyond them and will be for many generations to come, if indeed they can re-develop them at all.

[Iccarus]

09:47 PM on 08/05/2011

If you think Fiji water is good imagine Martian water, mmmm!

[Michael Allen Powers]

07:25 PM on 08/05/2011

Wow. Incredibly simplistic comments by people whose daily existence is enriched in one way or another by us just dipping our toe in the cosmic ocean. The satellite data alone has been responsible for higher crop yields both here and abroad. Besides which, things like this may be the only truly noble thing we've ever done as a species.

At some point in the future, we will have to find some way of expanding into space, or face a future on a single world with an ever increasing population and dwindling resources. It will inevitably reach a tipping point. If that happens, and we aren't ready, our fates are sealed.