Skip to navigation | Skip to content  Getting real about water
on Mars   The great depression: An image taken by the Mars
Orbiter Laser Altimeter shows the giant Hellas Basin – the dark-
blue spot to the bottom left. (Pic: NASA)  Scientists say they
have more evidence that carbon dioxide, not water, could be
responsible for shaping the surface of Mars.  According to
geophysicist Nick Hoffman of the University of Melbourne, the
evidence comes from a mathematical modelling exercise designed
to investigate how certain features on Mars were formed.  Along
with colleagues from the US Geological Survey in Arizona,
Hoffman reports his results in this month's Geophysical Research
Letters.  "Many scientists are very fond of the idea of there
being liquid water everywhere on Mars, and their position is
almost beyond scientific rationality," said Hoffman, speaking by
phone from a Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference in Houston.
"They've worked on it for so long they believe it must be true."
"Speaking personally I'd