The geological phenomenon found at the Arctic
impact crater appears similar to features found on Mars, Rice said. He plans to return to
Devon Island this summer to carry out more studies.
"I’m not saying they are exactly the same. The process may or may not be
occurring on Mars. But it fits. It makes a lot of sense. But then you’ve got to ask
where that liquid water is coming from," Rice said.
"Mars is getting really interesting. It never lets us down. As long as we get
there in one piece, it always has surprises for us," Rice said.
While these features may be a few million years old, they cannot be ruled out as having
been formed days ago, said Michael Malin, principal investigator for the spacecraft's
camera, which was built at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California.
A subsurface water supply on Mars, similar to an aquifer, is believed to responsible
for the features. Still a puzzle, however, is the process that started water flowing on
Mars.
Punching through the permafrost
Christopher McKay, a Mars researcher at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett
Field, California, also sees a link between the new Mars pictures and cold springs in the
permanently frozen subsoil at Earth's polar regions.
McKay’s research has taken him to a fiord in western Axel Heiberg Island in the
Canadian Arctic.
At that location, McKay and his colleagues have found cold springs that punch up
through nearly 2,000 feet (610 meters) of soil year-round.
Like the Arctic spring water that is salty, saturated salt water on Mars would be
stable even under the thin Martian atmosphere, McKay said.
If confirmed, the presence of liquid water on Mars would have great implications for
the search for past or present life on the planet.
"If life ever did develop there and if it survives to the present time, then these
landforms would be great places to look," said Edward Weiler, NASA's space science
chief.
Fractured features
Jack Farmer, a specialist in Mars biology and geology at Arizona State University
in Tempe, said interpreting the Martian landforms as being shaped by liquid water "is
pretty robust."
"These kind of features could be common on Mars. It kind of opens up a whole new
way to look at the planet," he said.
Flowing water may be tied to a deep groundwater system on Mars, in which water is
pushed up through cracks in the crust.
Simulations in Earth laboratories under realistic Martian conditions are needed to
determine if Mars Global Surveyor really is seeing evidence of recent water, Farmer said.
Ground ice on Mars may be a natural place to look for life, Farmer said. "In my
view, that’s the first place to go," he said.
"Organisms living in subsurface habitats would be entrained in the water. When
they come up they are quickly incorporated in ground ice. So the organisms are
cryo-preserved in the ice," he said.
Picking around the edges
Bruce Jakosky, head of the Center for Astrobiology at the University of Colorado in
Boulder, said the Mars Global Surveyor data is compelling.
"I’m convinced beyond any doubt," he said.
Scientists have suspected for three decades that there was water somewhere on Mars,
perhaps deep within its interior. The geological record shows that the planet once was
warm and wet -- as Earth is today.
"This is the first time we have evidence that says there is liquid water at the
present," Jakosky said. "Maybe not yesterday, but within the last 1 [million] or
10 million years. And it’s near the surface."
But the mystery of Mars will remain until more spacecraft can get there and examine the
planet up close.
"It’s clear that there’s so much we don’t know about Mars," he
said. "We’re still picking around the edges of the problem. Is there life or was
there ever life? Hopefully, we’ll answer that over the next decade."
