The recently revealed gullies [
http://www.msss.com…] on Mars are rare. But they may [
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.g…] prove to be sites of present day, near surface, liquid water [
http://cmex-www.arc…], holding out the tantalizing possibility of martian life [
http://cmex-www.arc…]. Too small to have been seen by past [
http://mars.jpl.nas…] Mars orbiters, these disconcerting landforms were found in only about 250 out of more than 20,000 high resolution images from the operating Mars Global Surveyor [
http://mars.jpl.nas…] spacecraft. Gullies found so far are located away from the martian [
http://cmex.arc.nas…] equatorial region at middle and high latitudes (predominately in the south) and on poleward facing slopes. They are disconcerting because researchers have a compelling body of evidence [
http://www.sciencem…hottopics/index.html ] that the martian gullies are related to groundwater seepage and, like their terrestrial counterparts, liquid water runoff -- on a planet [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] whose surface is thought to be too cold and atmosphere too thin for liquid water to exist. The gullies in the three kilometer wide area pictured above [
http://www.msss.com…index.html ] are in the south facing wall of a crater in southern Noachis Terra [
http://cmex-www.arc…]. Unblemished by craters and overlaying young surface features, these and other gullies are inescapably young [
http://www.msss.com…index.html ] themselves. In fact, future [
http://spaceflight.…] monitoring of the martian gullies for changes could demonstrate whether the flows that formed them are still active today.
Explanation
The recently revealed gullies [
http://www.msss.com…] on Mars are rare. But they may [
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.g…] prove to be sites of present day, near surface, liquid water [
http://cmex-www.arc…], holding out the tantalizing possibility of martian life [
http://cmex-www.arc…]. Too small to have been seen by past [
http://mars.jpl.nas…] Mars orbiters, these disconcerting landforms were found in only about 250 out of more than 20,000 high resolution images from the operating Mars Global Surveyor [
http://mars.jpl.nas…] spacecraft. Gullies found so far are located away from the martian [
http://cmex.arc.nas…] equatorial region at middle and high latitudes (predominately in the south) and on poleward facing slopes. They are disconcerting because researchers have a compelling body of evidence [
http://www.sciencem…hottopics/index.html ] that the martian gullies are related to groundwater seepage and, like their terrestrial counterparts, liquid water runoff -- on a planet [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] whose surface is thought to be too cold and atmosphere too thin for liquid water to exist. The gullies in the three kilometer wide area pictured above [
http://www.msss.com…index.html ] are in the south facing wall of a crater in southern Noachis Terra [
http://cmex-www.arc…]. Unblemished by craters and overlaying young surface features, these and other gullies are inescapably young [
http://www.msss.com…index.html ] themselves. In fact, future [
http://spaceflight.…] monitoring of the martian gullies for changes could demonstrate whether the flows that formed them are still active today.
Explanation
