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NASA Orbiter Reveals Details of a Moister Mars

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the alliteration-makes-me-happy dept.

Matt_dk writes "NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has observed a new category of minerals spread across large regions of Mars. This discovery suggests that liquid water remained on the planet's surface a billion years later than scientists believed, and it played an important role in shaping the planet's surface and possibly hosting life."

7 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Stop it. by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Every time someone claims ANYTHING about water on mars, it always trails with "There could have been/should/would been life!". Find me a fossil and then we'll talk.

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    1. Re:Stop it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Fossil. Check. And it is already on Earth.

    2. Re:Stop it. by ChienAndalu · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What do you mean by fossil? Life on earth was consisting of creatures less complex than bacteria for a billion years, if earth dried out at that time, I doubt that you would find "fossils" very easily.

  2. Always "possible life" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "...and possibly life."

    Can't leave that out. Life is so easy to get started that it must have been everywhere there was water.

  3. Re:wonderful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    They want to make absolutely sure there's no native life there, before we transplant our own.

  4. Re:Re TFA by E++99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now regarding the actual article, what they seem to be saying is that there might have been a longer window for life to develop on Mars. Frankly this was always an unlikely event...Mars is and probably always has been dead.

    Based on what? We have no idea. For all we know it may be virtually impossible for a planet to go 1,000 years with liquid water on its surface without acquiring life.

  5. Fixed :Stop it. by Paltin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Fixed version:

    What do you mean by fossil? Life on earth was consisting of creatures equally complex to bacteria for approximately 4 billion years, and these organisms are tough to find and difficult to identity