{"id":367,"date":"2025-10-16T02:02:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T02:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.sciencepicker.com\/?p=367"},"modified":"2025-10-16T02:02:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T02:02:50","slug":"finding-water-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/finding-water-on-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding water on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ever since we\nstarted investigating Mars with spacecraft back in the early 1960s,\ninvestigators have been on the lookout for proof of water on the Red Planet.\nEvery mission gathers more evidence for the presence of water in the past and\npresent, and specialists share that knowledge with the public. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Earth<\/strong>, conclusive proof of water<\/strong> is easy to\nobtain from rainfalls, snowfalls, lakes, ponds, rivers, and the oceans.\nConsidering we haven’t toured Mars<\/strong> in person, scientists work with evidence\ncollected by spacecraft and lander rovers on the surface. Future astronauts may\nbe able to find water,<\/strong> investigate it, and even use it. It’s necessary\nto know how much water exists on the Red Planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Streaks on Mars<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over the few years, specialists have noticed unique dark streaks\nthat resemble the surface on precipitous slopes. They appear to come and go\nwith the transition of seasons, as temperatures changes. They darken and seem\nto flow down through periods when the temperatures are more heated, and then\ndisappear as things calm down. These streaks develop in several locations on Mars<\/strong>\nand have been called recurring slope lines or “RSLs”. Scientists\nstrongly doubt they’re relevant to splashing water<\/strong> that accumulates\nhydrated salts that have been in contact with water<\/strong> on those slopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salts point the way<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

NASA’s<\/strong> Mars<\/strong> Reconnaissance Orbiter<\/strong> declared the\nCompact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars<\/strong>. It looked at\nsunlight after it had been mirrored from the surface, and investigated it to\nunderstand what chemical components and minerals were there. The investigations\nshowed the chemical signature of hydrated salts in various locations, but only\nwhen the dark features were more extensive than usual.  A second look at the same places when the\nswaths were not very wide didn’t turn up any hydrated salt. What this signifies\nis that if there’s water<\/strong> there, it’s sprinkling the salt and making it\nshow up in the observations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are these salts? Observers concluded that they are hydrated minerals called perchlorates which are known to exist on Mars<\/strong>. Both the Mars Phoenix Lander<\/strong> and the Wonder rover<\/strong> have discovered them in the soil specimens they’ve studied. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Source: Shutterstock.com\/BusinessImage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why worry about water on Mars?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The discovery of water on\nMars<\/strong> is the outcome of many investigations over the last 50 years, each one\nleaving proof of the existence of water. More information will help scientists understand\nhow much water<\/strong> the Red Planet<\/strong>\nholds and its origins underground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, people will visit Mars<\/strong>, perhaps anytime in the next\n20 years, hopefully. When they do, those first Mars<\/strong> astronauts will need\nall the information they can gather about restrictions on the Red Planet. It’s\nessential to life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if we never manage to send people to the Red Planet, knowing\nits history and compositions will help us solve many mysteries. In particular,\nknowing if there is, or ever was water<\/strong> on Mars<\/strong> will help us fill many gaps.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since we started investigating Mars with spacecraft back in the early 1960s, investigators have been on the lookout for proof of water on the Red Planet. Every mission gathers more evidence for the presence of water in the past and present, and specialists share that knowledge with the public. On Earth, conclusive proof of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-and-astronomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":684,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions\/684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}