Recent Martian expeditions have paid dividends as of this morning, when NASA scientists shocked the world by announcing the presence of liquid water on Mars.
How could that be? Mars is a barren hellscape with a razor-thin atmosphere. This is why imaging spectrometers are wonderful inventions. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) detected signatures of hydrated minerals on the Martian surface. These minerals ebbed, flowed, and changed color over time, darkening and flowing downward during warm seasons and fading during cold ones.
These downhill flows are called recurring slope lineae (RSL) and have often been described as possibly related to liquid water. The hydrated salts in these flows lower the freezing point of liquid brine, making more extreme cold necessary to freeze the liquid. As a point of comparison, think of how we salt roads in the winter months to melt snow and ice. This works because the introduction of salt requires more frigid temperatures to freeze the water.
So, where does this water come from? Scientists state that the water permeates from a shallow subsurface flow. Enough water wicks to the surface for the darkening to occur.
The implications of this discovery are incredible, to say the least. For decades, humans have thought of Mars as little more than a barren wasteland. The discovery of liquid water changes that misconception for good. However, there are other implications to this discovery that could carry an even more mind-blowing revelation.
Even brine-heavy water has the potential to host life and it probably doesn’t need to be stated how earth-shattering the discovery of life on a foreign world would be.
It is this writer’s opinion that the discovery of life on other planets would likely be the single most important scientific breakthrough humanity could dream of having. It would make all of our scientific and technological investment absolutely priceless. It would make solar system exploration an invaluable investment, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
I’ve always believed that the enlightenment of the human species can be found in space. The discovery of liquid water on another planet is the first step toward that enlightenment.
