An image combining orbital imagery with 3-D modeling shows salt water flows that appear in spring and summer on a slope inside Mars' Newton crater.NASA
An image combining orbital imagery with 3-D modeling shows salt water flows that appear in spring and summer on a slope inside Mars' Newton crater.NASAAn artist's conception shows what NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed, vast Martian glaciers of water ice under protective blankets of rocky debris at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on the Red Planet. Scientists analyzed data from the spacecraft's ground-penetrating radar and reported in the November 21, 2008 issue of the journal Science that buried glaciers extend for dozens of miles from edges of mountains or cliffs.REUTERS/NASAGully channels in a crater in the southern highlands of Mars, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, are shown in this image released by NASA September 20, 2007. The gullies emanating from the rocky cliffs near the crater's rim (upper L) show meandering and braided patterns typical of water-carved channels.REUTERS/NASAAn undated photo released by NASA February 15, 2007 shows the surface of Mars displaying the effects of ancient underground fluids. New images of a craggy, fissure-filled canyon on Mars provided evidence of long-term underground water flows that may have provided a suitable environment for microbial life.REUTERS/NASAThis image, taken by the microscopic imager on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, shows a geological region of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars dubbed "El Capitan." "El Capitan", which is pocked with indentations about a centimetre (0.4 inch) long, has the distinctive texture familiar to geologists as the sites where crystals of salt minerals form within rocks that sit in briny water. Parts of Mars were once "drenched" with so much water that life could easily have existed there, NASA said on March 2, 2004.REUTERS/NASAA handout picture taken by Mars Express, January 15 from a height of 273 km shows a channel (Reull Vallis) once formed by flowing water east of the Hellas basin on Mars January 23, 2004.REUTERS/NASASigns of water erosion and debris flow are seen in this high-resolution view of gullies eroded into the wall of a meteor impact crater in Noachis Terra on Mars, taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and released on June 22, 2000. The image shows channels and associated aprons of debris, interpreted to have formed by groundwater seepage, surface runoff, and debris flow.REUTERSThe planet Mars is shown in this June 30, 1999 file photo taken by the Hubble space telescope. In June 1999, NASA discovered evidence of water on the surface of Mars. The finding was made by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. Evidence of seasonal deposits that could be associated with springs on the planet's surface was reported.REUTERS/NASA
Recently taken photographs of the surface of Mars, by NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been exploring the red planet for two months now, seem to offer evidence water once flowed on the planet's surface.
NASA confirmed Rover captured photographs of rock and ancient streambed gravel and the scientists said the size and shape of the stones suggested they could have only been created and carried by flowing water. There is prior evidence to the presence of water on Mars but each piece of speculation points towards a different phenomenon. The scientists claimed this evidence is the first of its kind.
In 2006, the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which began orbiting Mars in 1997, provided images of two gullies on Mars that suggested water carried sediment through them. In yet another expedition in 2008, laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander identified water in a soil sample. More recently, in July last year, scientists claimed to have found traces of water under a thin varnish of iron oxide, or rust, similar to conditions found on desert rocks in California's Mojave Desert.
And in early August 2011, NASA scientists claimed the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found flowing salt water, which appears only in spring and summer, on a slope inside Mars' Newton crater. Through the discovery they concluded that salt deposits or such brines were abundant over much of Mars in the past and may form still today in limited times and places.
Start the slideshow to know about more such major past Mars missions suggesting evidence of water on the Martian surface
