as small as a world and as large as alone

8:24am April 14, 2015

antikythera-astronomy:

Leaky Mountains on Mars

Recurring slope lineae is what planetary scientists call the strange phenomena you see above.

On Mars, these strange patterns tend to disappear and reappear with the Martian winter and summers respectively.

Water, often thought to be the key to life, was a dominant presence on the surface of ancient Mars. More recently, however, something happened and the Martian atmosphere was largely lost.

After this, liquid Martian water ceased to be. The conditions for water to be liquid doesn’t exist on Mars…

Or so we’d thought until as recently as 2011. Although direct spectral evidence of water hasn’t been found, these images seem to suggest that something very unexpected is going on.

Every Summer, when temperatures on Mars can reach a warm 77˚ Fahrenheit, bedrock outcrops on Mars start leaking… something. The most accepted theory, despite a lack of direct evidence, is briny, liquid water.

On Mars.

Today.

(Image credit: NASA, JPL, University of Arizona)

706 notes