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If there's water on Mars, how about life? |
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Dec 06, 2006 at 07:13 PM |
Once in awhile a news story transcends the usual noise level of mayhem reports, feel-good features, scandal updates, and photo opps.
Such a story is today's announcement from NASA that there is new and compelling evidence of water briefly spurting onto the surface of Mars.
Michael Malin's quote from the press release puts the space agency's findings into perspective. "These fresh deposits suggest that at some places and times on present-day Mars, liquid water is emerging from beneath the ground and briefly flowing down the slopes. This possibility raises questions about how the water would stay melted below ground, how widespread it might be, and whether there's a below-ground wet habitat conducive to life (emphasis added)."
That last phrase kick-starts my sense of awe and wonder. Finding life, however primitive, elsewhere in our own solar system would be the first step in proving that we are not alone in the universe.
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