Water on Mars

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Friday 1 August 2008

RAPID ROUNDUP: Water on Mars – experts respond

NASA scientists have confirmed today that water has been found on Mars in soil samples collected by the Phoenix Mars Lander. The samples were collected after the probe's robotic arm dug several trenches near the planet's north pole, which were then heated in small 'ovens' aboard the probe, turning chunks of ice into water.

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Dr Charles Lineweaver is Senior Fellow at the Planetary Sciences Institute at Mt. Stromlo Observatory and the Research School of Earth Sciences at ANU

"It is exciting, though not unexpected. This is probably the most direct detection we will have of water on Mars until an astronaut drinks the stuff. The next steps are to find out if it is fresh or saline...if saline than what kinds of salts?... and whether there are organics of any kind in the ice.

As the oven on TEGA heats the sample, organics may show up. Lots of climatological information can come out of ice cores as we know from Greenland and Antarctica..but we are literally just scratching the surface of Mars.”

Professor Malcolm Walter is Director of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at the University of New South Wales

"'Follow the water' has long been the mantra in the search for life beyond Earth. Now, for the first time, there is a direct analysis on the ground of water on another planet, Mars. There have been indirect indications for decades, which is why the search has persisted, but NASA's Phoenix lander has now hit the jackpot. It matters because all life that we know of requires water. The water on Mars is frozen but is likely to exist as a liquid from time to time. This is not yet a discovery of life but it encourages us to continue the search. My opinion is that it is very likely that there once was, and probably still is, life on Mars. That life will have been microbial. Notice that I don't say "only" microbial. Most life on Earth now is microscopic, and always was. It is how life here began.

Australian researchers continue to play a significant role in the search for life on Mars. The Pilbara with its evidence of life billions of years ago, and places like Shark Bay with prolific growths of microbes, provide clues as to where to search on Mars.

We are zeroing in on the most likely targets. Many of us will live long enough to know whether there is life on Mars, and therefore probably all over the Universe."

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