Salt water appear over on Mars

Salt water 'could be the source of the intriguing dark streaks that appear over on Mars over the planet's summer'
By Damien Gayle
PUBLISHED: 09:35 GMT, 26 October 2012 | UPDATED: 10:38 GMT, 26 October 2012
Seasonal flow patterns seen by spacecraft orbiting Mars could have been caused by salty water, new research suggests.
Dark, finger-like features appear and extend down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer, fade in winter, and return during the next spring.
Now two U.S.-based researchers have explained how the intriguing dark streaks could have been caused by the melting and subsequent evaporation of frozen salty water.
Flow patterns: Dark, finger-like features appear and extend down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer, fade in winter, and return during the next spring
Flow patterns: Dark, finger-like features appear and extend down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer, fade in winter, and return during the next spring
The lines, first spotted last year by Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, lengthen and darken on rocky equator-facing slopes from late spring to early autumn.
Research published at the time said that these seasonal changes suggested that a volatile substance was involved, but the environment is too warm for carbon dioxide frost and too cold for pure water.
Some kind of brine was suggested as fitting the bill, but until now there had been no theories as to what that could consist of.
'We had to find a salt-water mixture that would come and go,' said Vincent Chevrier, a research assistant professor in the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, and lead author of the new study.
Professor Chevrier and co-author Edgard Rivera-Valentin, now at Brown University, investigated forms of salt known to form on Mars to work out how they could affect the melting and evaporation points of ice and water.
This animation shows how the streaks appear, extend, then disappear with the passage of Martian seasons
NASA BOSS HOPES ASTRONAUTS COULD BRING CURIOSITY HOME
The director of Nasa's Mars exploration programme says he hopes that one day the rover Curiosity might be brought back to Earth by astronauts.
Doug McCuistion said it was his personal hope that humans would visit the Red Planet in the 2030s or 2040s. He said he could imagine astronauts walking up to Curiosity.
A Picasso-like self portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover taken by its Navigation cameras, located on the upright mast
Mr McCuistion said the roving laboratory's mission was scheduled to last two years, but it could have enough power for 20 years.
The Nasa chief set out his vision during a satellite link up with Glenelg in the Scottish Highlands at the w
p-dhfgh5df / Salt water appear over on Mars
Salt water 'could be the source of the intriguing dark streaks that appear over on Mars over the planet's summer'
By Damien Gayle
PUBLISHED: 09:35 GMT, 26 October 2012 | UPDATED: 10:38 GMT, 26 October 2012
Seasonal flow patterns seen by spacecraft orbiting Mars could have been caused by salty water, new research suggests.
Dark, finger-like features appear and extend down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer, fade in winter, and return during the next spring.
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