NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Currently Flows on Mars

[Phobos]

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars

New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars. Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.

"It took multiple spacecraft over several years to solve this mystery, and now we know there is liquid water on the surface of this cold, desert planet," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "It seems that the more we study Mars, the more we learn how life could be supported and where there are resources to support life in the future."

[Unit 33]

I for one, welcome our new water-based Martian overlords.

[Gold Man]

At first I thought this was a hoax (since I've seen an email that floated around April Fools way long ago with a glass of water on top of a Mars bar), but I am glad that I have not been fooled. For once it's true!

[Unit 33]

Here's a gif of the water flow:

[{TCE}Call-of-Duty]

Anyone else think it's suspicious that this comes out a week after Taken King was released...

[Ultimo]

The thing I find most suspicious is that it took us so long to discover these details about Mars, yet we've been picking up details on planets and stars millions of more miles away, for several years...

[{Alpha} Kiwi]

The thing I find most suspicious is that it took us so long to discover these details about Mars, yet we've been picking up details on planets and stars millions of more miles away, for several years...

To be fair it wasn't really all that much water, and from what they are saying I assume it only appears during the summer.

[Joseph]

Argument that finding life on mars (past or present) would be terrible news for humans:



In brief, there seem to be no civilizations (besides us), despite lots of effort to find some.

So there is a "great filter" preventing civilization from arising. (The filter is the net sum of all obstructions to life starting, multicelled life evolving, big brains evolving, language evolving, and so on.)

Humans are here, so we've gotten through some of the filter. But finding evidence for life on Mars (past or present) makes it more likely that there's more filter in our future than our past (since life starting must not be that hard).

On the other hand, if we find water but no life, that would be good news, because it means life is hard to get started even with water.