Water on Mars

The big question is back –could life exist on Mars? Photographs taken from orbit suggest that liquid water may have flowed on the surface of Mars in the very recent past –or may still do so –raising yet again the possibility of Earthlings colonising our celestial cousin.
Of course, speculation about water on Mars is not yet new. What’s new is the evidence of its recent traces, announced by NASA at a News conference on Wednesday. The images taken by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor do not directly show water. Instead, they show apparently recent changes in surface features that provide the strongest evidence yet that water even now sometimes flows on the dusty, frigid world.
“These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars,” Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, said on Wednesday.
The Global Surveyor spotted gullies and trenches that seemed to be geologically young and carved by fast moving water coursing down cliffs and crater walls. Scientists at the Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems, who operate a camera abroad the spacecraft, decided to retake photos of thousands of gullies in search of evidence of recent water activity.