Water May Be Flowing On Mars Right Now
The Dark Streaks Nature Geoscience / Alfred McEwen et al. The intrepid Mars rover Curiosity has already confirmed that water once flowed on Mars, but that it's long since dried up. Still, that doesn't mean there's not flowing water now, too. NASA data has long supported the idea that a seasonal, briny water may be flowing on the Red Planet. In 2011, scientists noted that landscape formations showing up in the planet's warmer months were caused by flowing water--or, at least, that was the "best explanation for these observations so far." Now, the Mars Reconnoissance Orbiter has spotted more of those "dark, finger-like features" near the Martian equator, offering tantalizing evidence of briny water--or some other liquid substance--that appears in the winter but evaporates in the warm season. Flowing water on Mars, of course, hasn't yet been confirmed, and there are competing theories on what,...