Page 28 - aruba today sept 29,2015

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SCIENCETuesday 29 September 2015
Life on Mars? NASA says planet appears to have flowing water
MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
(AP) — Mars appears to
be flowing with rivulets of
salty water, at least in the
summer, scientists reported
Monday in a finding that
boosts the odds of life on
the red planet.
“It suggests that it would
be possible for there to
be life today on Mars,”
NASA’s science mission
chief, John Grunsfeld, said
at a news conference.
Scientists in 2008 confirmed
the existence of frozen
water on Mars. Now instru-
ments aboard NASA’s Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter
have yielded the stron-
gest evidence yet that salt
water in liquid form trick-
les down certain Martian
slopes each summer, ac-
cording to the researchers.
“Mars is not the dry, arid
planet that we thought
of in the past,” said Jim
Green, director of plane-
taryscience for NASA. “Un-
der certain circumstanc-
es, liquid water has been
found on Mars.”
The rivulets — if that’s what
they are, since the evi-
dence for their existence
is indirect — are about 12
to 15 feet wide and 300
feet or more long, scientists Reconnaissance Orbiter shows dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks on the surface of Mars that
said.
“What we’re dealing with is
wet soil, thin layers of wet
soil, not standing water,”
said Alfred McEwen of the
University of Arizona at Tuc- McEwen said he, for one,
son, the principal scientist
for the Mars Reconnais-
sance Orbiter’s high-reso-
lution imaging experiment.
Because liquid water is es-
sential to life, the findings The presence of liquid wa-
could have major implica-
tions for the possibility of
Martian life. The research-
ers said in the journal Na-
ture Geoscience that fur-
ther exploration is warrant-
ed to determine whether
microscopic life exists on

The idea of water — and
life — on Mars has been
irresistible to earthlings for
generations.
In 1877, Italian astronomer
Giovanni Schiaparelli spied
what he called “canali” on
Mars — Italian for “chan-
nels” — but the word was
mistranslated as “canals”
in English, causing imagi-
nations to run wild. In the
early 1900s, amateur as-
tronomer Percival Lowell
claimed to have spotted
irrigation canals and the-
orized they were built by
Martians.
In 2008, NASA’s Phoenix
This undated photo provided by NASA and taken by an instrument aboard the agency’s Mars spacecraft landed on
Mars and confirmed the
scientists believe were caused by flowing streams of salty water. long-suspected presence
of ice in the soil. The Mars
Associated Press
the planet. combination. ogy committee. “The more Reconnaissance Orbiter
McEwen said that there evidence we find of it, the has been circling the plan-
believes the possibility of appears to be a “signifi- more encouraged I am for et since 2006.
life on Mars to be “very cant volume” of water, future Mars missions.” The lead author of the re-
high,” though it would be speculating it could fill Present-day Mars is noth- search paper, Lujendra
microbial and somewhere many Olympic swimming ing like ancient Mars. Three Ojha, is a Ph.D. candidate
in the Martian crust. pools, but that it is spread billion years ago, our most at Georgia Institute of
thin. Earthlike neighbor had a Technology.
ter could also make life The streaks were spotted huge ocean, but some- For NASA, at least, the tim-
easier for astronauts visit- by the orbiter’s high-reso- thing radical happened, ing couldn’t be better.
ing or living on Mars. Water lution, telescopic camera. and exactly what remains This Friday, the NASA-ap-
could be used for drinking Another on-board instru- a mystery. proved movie “The Mar-
and for creating oxygen ment detected the chemi- tian” has its premiere.q
and rocket fuel. NASA’s cal signature of salt com-
Rosetta comet likely formedgoal is to send humans pounds combined with
there in the 2030s. water.
from 2 separate objects The evidence of flowing Michael Meyer, lead sci-
water consists largely of entist for NASA’s Mars ex-
dark, narrow streaks on the ploration program, said FRANK JORDANS objects collided during the
surface that tend to ap- the only definitive way for Associated Press early stages of the solar sys-
pear and grow during the now to determine whether BERLIN (AP) — When the tem, according to a paper
warmest Martian months there’s life on Mars is to col- Rosetta space probe sent published Monday in the
and fade the rest of the lect rocks and soil for anal- back its first close-up pic- journal Nature.
year. ysis on Earth — something tures of a comet last year, Using data collected by
Mars is extremely cold even a U.S. lander set for liftoff in scientists got a bit of a sur- the OSIRIS cameras on-
in summer, and the streaks 2020 will do. prise: Instead of the ball of board Rosetta, scientists
are in places where the Now that scientists know rock and ice they had ex- were able to determine
temperature is as low as what they’re looking for, a pected, the comet turned that the flat planes and
minus-10 degrees Fahren- better, more methodical out to have two distinct arcs on 67P’s surface are
heit. But salt can lower the search can be carried out, lobes connected by a in fact terraces that wrap
freezing point of water and Green said. “neck.” around the two lobes like
melt ice. “Water is one of the most Some said it looked like a layers around an onion.
The source of the water is precious resources neces- giant rubber duck. “For the first time, this study
a mystery. Scientists noted sary for a human mission Researchers have now gives observational evi-
it could be melting ice, an to the red planet,” said concluded that the com- dence on how the primor-
underground aquifer, wa- Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, et 67P Churyumov-Ger- dial bodies formed,” said
ter vapor from the thin Mar- chairman of the House sci- asimenko was probably Matteo Massironi, one of
tian atmosphere, or some ence, space and technol- formed when two separate the study’s authors. q