Finding water on Mars is huge for our search for life beyond Earth

canada goose coats This isn’t some long gone lake bed from a billion years ago, there is water flowing on Mars right now. This discovery is a https://www.canadagooseparkasoutlet.ca huge step forward in our search for life, writes Alan Duffy. canada goose coats

canada goose coats on sale NASA promised “Mars mystery solved” in a teasing announcement that set scientists and the general public into a gossiping frenzy, including myself. In a canada goose factory sale world wide press conference at 1.30am (AEST) they didn’t disappoint. canada goose coats on sale

Canada Goose Outlet NASA’s strategy on Mars has been to “follow the water” for the canada goose black friday sale simple reason that, on Earth, where there’s water there’s life. Until today ours was the only uk canada goose world we knew of with liquid water flowing on its surface, now the red planet joins that list. While a long way from finding aliens, this discovery is a huge Canada Goose online step forward cheap Canada Goose in our search for life and gives confidence in our continued exploration of Mars. Canada Goose Outlet

buy canada goose jacket cheap For several years NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has watched as dark streaks (known as recurring slope lineae; RSL) appear in the arid dust of Mars. Typically less than a few metres in width they grow to hundreds of metres in length through the summer months and then disappear during the cold Martian winters. Natural except Mars is so cold that the water should be frozen and so dry that even if the water melted it should evaporate before flowing far. buy canada goose jacket cheap

canada goose clearance The answer lies in salts. Similar to Canada Goose sale how ice road gritters will spread salt to stop ice forming on roads even as outside temperatures drop below freezing, so too can salty water stay liquid even as temperatures on Mars plummet. canada goose clearance

Canada Goose Jackets Salts already known to be on Mars can reduce the freezing point of water by up to 80C, enabling water to flow even during the low temperatures of 23C that dark streaks canada goose uk black friday appear in. These salts also slow the rate of evaporation of water in the Martian atmosphere to just a tenth of what pure water would experience. All of this allows water to flow for hundreds of metres during warm seasons on Mars, spring in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere. Canada Goose Jackets

Canada Goose Parka This latest research in Nature Geoscience has teased out the composition of the dark streaks from four regions with MRO’s infrared spectral data providing the chemical fingerprints of perchlorate salts Canada Goose Coats On Sale (not what you’d want to add to your meals but naturally occurring on Mars). These salts had a special feature in their spectra revealing that they contained water, termed hydrated perchlorates. This is Canada Goose Jackets the smoking gun that liquid water is forming the dark streaks, saturating the salts that then remain behind as the water evaporates during the non day sun. Canada Goose Parka

cheap Canada Goose While humans would struggle to enjoy a cool glass of this brine (it’s saltier than our oceans) there exist hardy microbes known as halophiles in the ultra dry Atacama Desert of South America that live off water absorbed by the salts there, offering a glimpse into how any potential life on Mars might survive there. cheap Canada Goose

Five things needed to go to Mars In the new film The canada goose clearance sale Martian, marooned astronaut Mark Watney has to survive the Red Planet’s harsh environment. Just how close to reality is a manned mission to Mars?

canada goose black friday sale A continuing mystery, however, is where has the water come from? Perchlorates have an intriguing ability: just like the salts uk canada goose outlet in the Atacama Desert, they can absorb water from the atmosphere. It’s possible that salts are accumulating water from moisture in the Martin air until eventually it flows. It’s hard to imagine how the atmosphere can provide enough water to replenish them each year in all the RSLs. canada goose black friday sale

Alternatively, this water could be welling up from melting ice below the surface during the relatively warmer Martian seasons, potentially explaining some dark streaks, but it’s unlikely that subsurface ice would exist everywhere, especially in the incredibly arid equator regions.

Finally, it could be aquifers discharging each season. Yet with some RSLs seeping from the top of peaks while the aquifer would be at the bottom, it’s difficult to see how water would flow up to start the dark streaks. In other words, for each region where we find these signs of water flow there may be entirely different causes.

canada goose clearance sale Whichever the cause, it would be wise to check which it is before trying to land a crewed mission to Mars, as of the three only Canada Goose Outlet the subsurface ice would potentially have enough water to be worth accessing by astronauts. canada goose clearance sale

As Matt Damon discovered in The Martian you might need that extra water for an unexpectedly long stay Canada Goose Online on the red planet.

Dr Alan Duffy is a research fellow at Swinburne University of Technology in the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing.

buy canada goose jacket Was anyone actually surprised? There has been photographic Canada Goose Outlet evidence cheap canada goose uk for this around for years. buy canada goose jacket

canadian goose jacket And don’t forget the test performed on meteorites in the 1970’s that returned positive results for microbial life until canada goose coats NASA “fixed” the equipment to show the correct results. canadian goose jacket

Canada Goose online NASA has a history of doctoring evidence and covering up all sorts of anomalies that have been found in our solar system. If they are finally prepared to admit this, think of what they are sitting on. Canada Goose online

Canada Goose sale It also ties in pretty well with that stupid movie coming out.29 Sep canadian goose jacket 2015 8:57:08am Canada Goose sale

canada goose The problem with the idea that NASA is “doctoring evidence and covering up all canada goose uk outlet sorts of anomalies” is that the best way to get an increase in its budget would be to show what you’re accusing them of hiding. canada goose

canada goose store As for the photographic evidence of the RSLs being around for years yes, that may be true. It’s just that a scientifically reliable explanation has only now been announced. Given the relative lack canada goose store of money for interplanetary science it’s not surprising to me that it’s taken so long for this explanation to be adequately tested. canada goose store

Sorry Steve, canada goose clearance I’m not aware of NASA’s documented history of doctoring evidence and covering up all sorts of anomalies.

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