spacetoday.net: Water on Mars "pervasive and long-lasting"

Posted: Thu, Jul 17, 2008, 6:09 AM ET (1009 GMT)
Mars lakebed with delta (JHUAPL)

Analysis of data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have led scientists to conclude that liquid water on early Mars was commonplace and lasted for at least thousands of years. In a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Nature, scientists tracked the presence of clay-like minerals, phyllosilicates, which form only in the presence of water, using an imaging spectrometer instrument on MRO. The team found phyllosilicates in "vast regions" of the ancient highlands of the planet, indicating that liquid water was relatively common early in the planet's history. A related study, published in a companion journal last month, found a complex distribution of these clays in a crater that appears to have been an ancient lakebed; that distribution indicates that water must have been there for thousands of years.