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NASA announces water on Mars
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October 1, 2015
Original URL: https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/NASA_announces_water_on_Mars




On Monday, NASA announced that signs of liquid water have been found on
Mars. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft found evidence of the
liquid on the Martian surface, in long dark spots on the Red Planet
thought to be formed because of water flow.

In a news conference, NASA's planetary science director, Jim Green said,
"We now know Mars was once a planet very much like Earth with warm salty
seas and fresh water lakes [...] but something has happened to Mars, it
lost its water."

Water is thought to flow down slopes in the warm summer months and dry
up as the temperature drops seasonally. Scientists have different
theories about the water's origin, as perhaps from the Martian
atmosphere or from ice below the surface.

In 2011, Lujendra Ojha proposed the theory of water on the Martian
surface, after studying salt samples from Martian soil. The temperature
of Mars is close to the freezing point of water, but the presence of
salt lowers the freezing point. Alfred Mc Ewen, professor of planetary
geology at the University of Arizona, described the water as "briny".
Moreover, the recurring slope lineae (RSL) on the surface of Mars are
found to slide down the slope in the hotter season indicating the
presence of water.

NASA's associate administrator John Grunsfeld said those observations
gave a better picture about the planet's resources that could be helpful
in the future. Grunsfeld tweeted ''Water on Mars, not just frozen. Is
anything drinking it? Someday we wil find out on our #Journey To Mars''.

To mark this discovery, Google created a doodle in which Mars is sipping
water.

== Sources ==
* https://www.google.com/doodles/evidence-of-water-found-on-mars
* http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/28/nasa-scientists-find-evidence-f
lowing-water-mars
* http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasa-reveals-mars-frozen-liquid-water/story?i
d=34100372
* http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/nasa-water-mars-150928111344570.html
* https://twitter.com/SciAstro/status/648518371487690753



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