Liquid Water on Mars? Life???, page
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Topic started on 8-12-2006 @ 04:09 PM by BitRaiser
You may or may not have heard about this... but few people seem to be understanding how important this news could be:

Before-and-after images of gullies on the planet taken by Nasa's Mars Global Surveyor show liquid has flowed on the Red Planet in the last five years.

Scientists have previously pointed to features that suggest flowing water on Mars billions of years ago and have collected images of ice at the Martian north pole.

The discovery is unexpected because the planet's temperatures and atmospheric pressure are too low to allow water to exist in liquid form for long.

It suggests geological activity could be heating water beneath the surface so that it is warm enough to flow for long enough to leave deposits behind.

Source

Water that is kept liquid by geological action on Mars is BIG news. A basic rule of thumb is that where there's water, there's life. Here on Earth life exists in places that should be impossible (sealed caves, artic deserts, and within blacksmokers) as long as there's some amount of liquid water.

So far, we haven't been able to drill into Mars to see what might be going on below the surface. We already know that there's trace amounts of frozen water on the surface, but few people had thought that there could be liquid water moving underground. It is entierly possible that there could be life existing below the surface of the Red Planet, even to this day.

Even more important (to us) is that if there's water on Mars that could be extracted, it means that we could set up a manned outpost there A LOT more easily than if it was dry (as previously thought). It means that water supplies taken on the trip wouldn't have to be so large (water is heavy). It also means that this water could be used to create a renewable supply of oxygen (for breathing) and hydrogen (for power).

If this discovery is true, we're a giant leap closer to being able to estabish ourselves on another world.

That is amazing!
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