Observations from NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed possible flowing water during the warmest months on Mars,the space agency announced Thursday. NASAs Mars Exploration Program keeps bringing us closer to determining if the Red Planet could harbour life in some form, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden was quoted by the space agency as saying. And it reaffirms Mars as an important future destination for human exploration. The website shows dark,finger-like features appearing and extending down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer. The agency reports that these fade in winter,and return during the next spring. Repeated observations have tracked the seasonal changes in these recurring features on several steep slopes in the middle latitudes of Mars southern hemisphere. The best explanation for these observations so far is the flow of briny water, said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona,according to NASA. McEwen is the principal investigator for the orbiters High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and lead author of a report about the recurring flows published in Thursdays edition of the journal Science. Some aspects of the observations still puzzle researchers,but flows of liquid brine fit the features characteristics better than alternate hypotheses,the space agency said on its website. Saltiness lowers the freezing temperature of water. Sites with active flows get warm enough,even in the shallow subsurface,to sustain liquid water that is about as salty as Earths oceans,while pure water would freeze at these temperatures,the space agency reported. These dark lineations are different from other types of features on Martian slopes, said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Scientist Richard Zurek of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,according to NASA. Repeated observations show they extend ever farther downhill with time during the warm season. The features imaged are only about 0.5 to 5 yards or metres wide,with lengths up to hundreds of yards,the report shows. The width is much narrower than previously reported gullies on Martian slopes. However,some of those locations display more than 1,000 individual flows. Also,while gullies are abundant on cold,pole-facing slopes,these dark flows are on warmer,equator-facing slopes,NASA reported. The images show flows lengthen and darken on rocky equator-facing slopes from late spring to early fall,the agency reported. The seasonality,latitude distribution and brightness changes suggest a volatile material is involved,but there is no direct detection of one,NASA said in its announcement. The settings are too warm for carbon-dioxide frost and,at some sites,too cold for pure water. This suggests the action of brines,which have lower freezing points. Salt deposits over much of Mars indicate brines were abundant in Mars past.
