Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Mars Exploration News .




MARSDAILY
Evidence of brine 'flows' on Mars: water study
By Mariette LE ROUX
Paris (AFP) Sept 28, 2015


Curious lines running down slopes on the Martian surface may be streaks of super-salty brine, said the latest findings Monday in the scientific quest for extra-terrestrial liquid water, a prerequisite for life.

A team from the United States and France said it found evidence in the lines of "hydrated" salt minerals, which require water for their creation.

These results "strongly support the hypothesis" of liquid water on Mars today, concluded a research paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Astrophysicists have long hypothesised that the seasonal streaks, dubbed "recurring slope lineae" (RSL), may be formed by brine flows on the Red Planet.

The lines, up to a few hundred metres in length and typically under five metres (16 feet) wide, appear on slopes during warm seasons, lengthen, then fade as they cool.

But spacecraft images have not been detailed enough to probe what is within the lines -- the pixel resolution is coarser than the width of the streaks.

In April, scientists reported in the same journal that perchlorate salts, like the ones in the new study, were "widespread" on the surface of our planetary neighbour and humidity and temperature conditions just right for salty brines to exist.

Perchlorate is highly absorbent and lowers the freezing point of water so that it remains liquid at colder temperatures.

The new study found signs of these same salts in the enigmatic streaks.

"What our paper does is further substantiate that theoretical possibility" of liquid brines on Mars, co-author Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta told AFP by email.

- 'Almost' proof -

The team devised a method to extract more data from individual pixels in images from the CRISM spectrometer instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and found details "consistent with the presence of hydrated salt minerals that precipitate (crystallise) from water," according to a Nature press release.

"The findings strongly suggest a link between the transient streaks on Martian slopes and the flow of liquid brines," it added.

Asked if the data was unequivocal proof of liquid water on Mars, another of the study authors, Alfred McEwen from the University of Arizona, told AFP: "I would say almost".

But if there was, it was likely "wet soil, not free water sitting on the surface," he said by email.

It is widely accepted that the Red Planet once hosted plentiful water in liquid form, and still has water today, albeit frozen in ice underground.

Earlier this year, NASA said almost half of Mars' northern hemisphere had once been an ocean, reaching depths greater than 1.6 kilometres (one mile).

But 87 per cent of the precious substance was lost to space.


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





MARSDAILY
Salt flat indicates some of the last vestiges of surface water on Mars
Boulder CO (SPX) Aug 10, 2015
Mars turned cold and dry long ago, but researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered evidence of an ancient lake that likely represents some of the last potentially habitable surface water ever to exist on the Red Planet. The study, published Thursday in the journal Geology, examined an 18-square-mile chloride salt deposit (roughly the size of the city of Boulder) in th ... read more


MARSDAILY
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's Dance with Eclipses

China to rehearse new carrier rocket for lunar mission

NASA's LRO discovers Earth's pull is 'massaging' our moon

Moon's crust as fractured as can be

MARSDAILY
China's new carrier rocket succeeds in 1st trip

China launches new type of carrier rocket: state media

Long March-2D carrier rocket blasts off in NW China

Progress for Tiangong 2

MARSDAILY
Fire in the Hole: Studying How Flames Grow in Space

NASA Selects Five New Flight Directors to Lead Mission Control

Space fish detail effects of microgravity on bones

US astronaut misses fresh air halfway through year-long mission

MARSDAILY
New 'Snakeskin' Image and More from New Horizons

Pluto 'Wows' in Spectacular New Backlit Panorama

New photos reveal Pluto's stunning geological diversity: NASA

New Pluto Images from New Horizons: It's Complicated

MARSDAILY
Saturn's Moon Enceladus Hosts A Global Ocean

Cassini Finds Global Ocean in Saturn's Moon Enceladus

Under Saturnian moon's icy crust lies a 'global' ocean

At Saturn, One of These Rings is not like the Others

MARSDAILY
Satellite Data Helps Migrating Birds Survive

AAC Microtec and Spacemetric partner on smart downlinking of EO data

SSTL's DMC Constellation demonstrates 1-metre capability

A new view of the content of Earth's core

MARSDAILY
Airbus Defence and Space builds first hardware for Orion space vehicle's service module

India PM heads to Silicon Valley chasing a digital dream

Next stop for the Perlan 2 Glider: The edge of space

Space Architecture: From Outer Space to the Ocean Floor

MARSDAILY
Stellar atmosphere can be used to predict the composition of rocky exoplanets

Watching an exoplanet in motion around a distant star

Study: 'Hot Jupiter' exoplanets formed extremely rapidly

Europlanet 2020 launches new era of planetary collaboration in Europe




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.