NASA Announces They’ve Found Water On Mars

NASA has confirmed that they have found liquid water on Mars. For years, scientist have speculated that the streaks seen on Mars might have been caused by flowing water, and now they have confirmed those speculations.

The single biggest discovery for the human race would be to find life on other planets, so finding water on Mars is a very significant find. As we all know, to have life, you've got to have water. Furthermore, NASA is saying they have evidence of water existing on Mars now, not just that water has existed there.

There is, however, a catch.

The water is not flowing water due to the fact it evaporates really quickly as a result of the planet's thin atmosphere.

From bloomberg.com -

The new images don't actually show flowing water, which doesn't last long on the Martian surface. It evaporates quickly, and the thin atmosphere wicks it up and away. The orbiter collects its data at about 3 p.m. Mars time. That's a bad time for watching water, because the relative humidity is so low. Eight hours earlier or later, the scientists may have caught the water itself, Ojha said.

Instead, what's left are these patches of freshly hydrated salts, which bond with molecular water whenever it's around, leaving dark streaks. That's what Ojha and colleagues see in the images, and how they know there's water on Mars. It's locked in these salts, and couldn't be there without some recent influx.