Wednesday, December 06, 2006 AD
Mars: the wet planet?
NASA has announced that it will be reporting a "significant find" on Mars later today. The word on the street is that this will be an announcement that liquid water has been found on the planet's surface. "If confirmed, this would increase the possibility that microbial life could have existed recently or possibly exists now on the Martian surface," suggests Aviation Week. The NASA news briefing is scheduled for 1 pm EST today.
Update: official confirmation, with photos, now on NASA's website:
NASA photographs have revealed bright new deposits seen in two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them sometime during the past seven years.A photograph of the Q&A session from the news briefing is available here.
"These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, Washington.
