NASA Mars announcement: Evidence of liquid water discovered on Mars

Earth is no longer the only planet with liquid water with scientists presenting the most compelling evidence to date that liquid water flows on Mars.

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Evidence water flows on Mars

Scientists analysing data from a NASA spacecraft have found the first evidence that briny water flows on the surface of Mars.

Dark, narrow gullies on the surface of the red planet contain water-bearing salts which researchers say almost certainly formed from water flowing downhill.


The discovery, made with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, adds to mounting evidence that an ancient Mars had all the right ingredients for life to emerge.

"Of all the worlds we've explored, water flows only on the surface of one – ours. Which is why the discovery that water is now likely to be regularly flowing across Mars is so stunning," said Swinburne University of Technology astrophysicist Alan Duffy.


Scientists developed a new technique to analyse chemical maps of the Martian surface obtained by NASA's Orbiter spacecraft.

Using instruments on the MRO, a research team led by Lujendra Ojha from the Georgia Institute of Technology analysed the chemical composition of a series of dark streaks, or gullies, emanating out of the walls of Garni crater.

The gullies are 100-metres long and about five metres wide and appear larger during warm seasons.

Compared to the surrounding terrain, it was only in these gullies that the CRISM instrument detected water-bearing salts.

The findings were published in Nature Geoscience on Tuesday.


We have the capability to go there, ask this question 'is there life on Mars?' and answer it.

John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate


While the planet has polar ice caps and once hosted oceans and lakes billions of years ago, Dr Duffy said a lot people would be surprised to learn there is liquid water flowing there right now.

It was assumed liquid water could not survive the planet's dry, cold conditions and low atmospheric pressure, which would cause any surface water to boil away.

Cosmologist Geraint Lewis said just as salt on a frozen driveway lowered the freezing point of ice, this briny water remained liquid in the harsh conditions on Mars, allowing it to flow across the surface in the chill of a mid-summer on Mars.

Professor Lewis said many questions remained, including what was the source of this salty water.

It may be ice locked up under the surface or formed from vapours in the atmosphere.

Whatever the source, NASA's next Martian mission is likely to target these salty water flows.

NASA's mantra is to "follow the water" because where there is water there might be life.

"This is why NASA has invested so much resources into finding water on Mars," Dr Duffy said.

Briny water not proof of life ... yet

NASA went into details about how the discovery of liquid water on Mars was made during an major announcement and press briefing that was webcast, but it was not able to answer the biggest question: is there extraterrestrial life on the red planet?

"We haven't been able to answer the question 'does life exist beyond earth?', but following the [trail of] water is a critical element of that,"  Dr Jim Green, Planetary Science Division director at NASA, said in a Q&A after the announcement.

"We now have I think great opportunities to be in the right locations on Mars to thoroughly investigate that."

John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, says the existence briny liquid water adds to the possibility that there is life on Mars.

"The existence of liquid water, even if it's super salty briny water, gives the possibility that if there's life on Mars, it will give us a means to describe how life survived.

Gunseld also said NASA is in the best position yet to determine if there is life on Mars, or if there was once life on Mars.

"And we are now at a point technologically with over 50 years of successful space flight, that we have the capability to go there, ask this question 'is there life on Mars?' and answer it. This to me is the most exciting thing. Now that question is not an abstract scientific question. It's a concrete one that we can answer."

While NASA has not located proof of life on Mars, it has made some fascinating discoveries regarding the weather on Mars.

"We think a full water cycle existed billions of years ago," NASA announced on Twitter. "We haven't seen rain, but we have seen snow."

It's generally thought conditions on Mars are too hostile for life to exist today – the planet is freezing cold, bone dry and bombarded by radiation.

But Mars was once a more hospitable place. Dr Duffy said scientists had previously been too pessimistic about the conditions in which life can exist.

Life has adapted to horrendous conditions on Earth so something may have survived on Mars.

"You want to be careful betting yourself against nature," he said.

With Daniel Fallon and Reuters

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