Liquid water exists on Mars, boosting hopes for life there, NASA says

Potentially life-giving water still flows across the ancient surface of Mars from time to time, NASA scientists said Monday in revealing a potential breakthrough in both the search for life beyond Earth and human hopes to one day travel there.

While the discovery doesn't by itself offer evidence of life on Mars, either past or present, it does boost hopes that the harsh landscape still offers some refuge for microbes to cling to existence.

"The existence of liquid water, even if it is super salty briny water, gives the possibility that if there's life on Mars, that we have a way to describe how it might survive," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA.

NASA researchers using an imager aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed the watery flows by looking at light waves returned from seasonal dark streaks on the surface, long suspected to be associated with liquid water.

The investigation showed the streaks absorb light at specific wavelengths associated with chemicals known to pull water from the Martian atmosphere in a process known as deliquescence, said Georgia Tech doctoral student Lujendra Ojha, who first discovered the streaks while still an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona in 2011.

The chemicals allow the water to remain liquid at lower temperatures but also help keep it from boiling off in the thin atmosphere of Mars, the researchers said.

網址:http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/28/us/mars-nasa-announcement/index.html

WHO:NASA

WHAT:The liquid water in MARS

WHEN:2015/09/28

WHERE:MARS

WHY:To find there are another creature in Mars or not 

HOW: Use Curiousy to search the surface on MARS

1.harsh  苛刻

2.microbes  微生物

3.briny  海水

4.administrator  管理員

5.wavelength  波長

6.deliquescence  潮解

7.undergraduate  本科