NASA confirmed the current presence of liquid water on Mars after discovering hydrated salts, which induced the seasonal changes to dark and long streaks on the planet.
These streaks, called recurring slope lineae, were first discovered on accident in 2010 by Lujendra Ojha, an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona. Ojha used a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera located on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to snap photos of Mars. When he examined the photos, Ojha observed peculiar streaks on the Red Planet. However, he was at the time unaware of the significance of this finding.
It is only now, five years later, that the magnitude of Lujendra Ojha’s discoveries are being brought to light. Through observation, scientists discovered that the streaks change in form over the seasons. Scientists studying the streaks inferred that they were formed by flowing water.
Eventually, scientists discovered the presence of hydrated salts around the slopes. These hydrated salts suggest that briny flowing water was most likely the cause of the recurring slope lineae. Hydrated salts can also lower liquid water’s freezing point, ideal for Mars’s fluctuating weather conditions.
Science teacher Katherine Ward says, “NASA has found that … the water is cyclical, that there’s a cycle to the water. It’s very much like our polar ice caps, the idea that it expands and then contracts. So that’s what they found. They found evidence of water currently being on Mars and water being cyclical.”
Although liquid water on Mars is a new discovery, scientists have known about the presence of ice on Mars for some time. Science teacher Steve Ratto says, “We knew [frozen] water used to be on Mars. And the idea now is that [NASA is] finding trace amounts of [liquid] water in different locations.”
The presence of the life-sustaining molecule gives scientists hopeful prospects of life on Mars. Junior Eduardo San Miguel comments, “Where there is water, life can live. In the future, people will remember this as part of the build up to the eventual colonization of Mars.”
Regarding the possibility of life, Ward says, “Life includes everything, included single-celled organisms, so is it possible that we could find single-celled organisms on Mars? Probably.”
Ward continues, “The other question is, ‘Could we put life on Mars?’ … [This is] terraforming, and it literally is ‘Can we create Earth in other places?’ ”
The notion that Mars is fit to be a “second Earth” may still be far-fetched, and the presence of liquid water doesn’t mean that the next step is finding Marvin the Martian. Ratto says, “Water doesn’t solve all of our problems. It’s not like all of a sudden we have water and everything is in good shape. [But] it’s a start.”
