Update on liquid water on Mars - maybe it is sand?

[mfb]

NASA announced in 2015 that they found some evidence for the existence of liquid water on Mars today - at least temporarily and underground.

A new study comes to a different conclusion and proposes sand as origin of the observed material transport downhill.

As interesting as these features are, the rovers on the ground stay away from them - exactly because they are interesting. The rovers are not completely sterile, so NASA avoids going close to places where there is a remote chance that life could survive.

 

[Bystander]

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...ars-mystery-solved-liquid-water-today.834469/
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/if-there-is-life-on-mars-should-people-stay-home.835972/

 

[GTOM]

Does that question that significant amount of frozen water can be found? (Possibly used by a small greenhouse experiment?)

 

[mfb]

This is unrelated to the ice that has been found independently.

 

[BillTre]

Here is a Science magazine news article interviewing one of the guys who did this research.
Lots in statements about lots of interesting subjects: RSL, water on Mars, where to look for life, ...

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Tardigrades could make the crossing and survive. It would be interesting to see how well they mobilized and reproduced (if at all) under the extreme conditions of Mars; not to mention what would they eat.

 

[r8chard]

In my (unverified) opinion the only water we will find on Mars, will test out to be remnants of cometary ices. Of recent bombardment, on a random basis. Of short duration before evaporation and sublimation to Solar radiation.

Maybe, under all the gigatonnage of debris left from billions of years of rocks falling from space. Maybe, we'll find a few, very ancient archaic fossils. Maybe, maybe not.

"By Popular Demand!" Most likely to be found will be Piltdown Man type frauds. To fleece the hopeful and defraud the gullible.

 

[DrStupid]

In my (unverified) opinion the only water we will find on Mars, will test out to be remnants of cometary ices.

The D/H ratio of Martian water doesn't fit to comet water (if the values from 67P are representative).

 

[r8chard]

DrS, I would be interested in following up on your information. Could you please include a pointer to the comet analysis.

 

[r8chard]

Whoops! Never mind DrS. I should have checked wiki first. The Rosetta article confirms what you said about the Deuterium/Hydrogen ratios.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_( spacecraft )#Notable_results

However we do not yet have on site confirmation of Mars water composition. So far, a lot of hopeful guesstimates. With recent backtracking on our certainties.

https://phys.org/news/2017-12-mars-absorbed-sponge.html#nRlv
https://phys.org/news/2017-11-recurring-martian-streaks-sand.html

 

[DrStupid]

However we do not yet have on site confirmation of Mars water composition.

What's wrong with this: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/04/science.aaa3630.full

 

[DrStupid]

DrS, I would be interested in following up on your information. Could you please include a pointer to the comet analysis.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6220/1261952

 

[sophiecentaur]

In my (unverified) opinion the only water we will find on Mars, will test out to be remnants of cometary ices. Of recent bombardment, on a random basis. Of short duration before evaporation and sublimation to Solar radiation.

Maybe, under all the gigatonnage of debris left from billions of years of rocks falling from space. Maybe, we'll find a few, very ancient archaic fossils. Maybe, maybe not.

"By Popular Demand!" Most likely to be found will be Piltdown Man type frauds. To fleece the hopeful and defraud the gullible.

I believe that some of the water on Earth is also thought to have come from 'somewhere' non-terrestrial too. See this link and also look at Wiki.