Flash floods on Mars? Maybe

ORLANDO, Fla. (MCT) — Recent changes on the surface of Mars resemble the effects of a flash flood, researchers said Wednesday, raising the likelihood that there is water bubbling up to the surface of the red planet.

The findings offer hope that Earth's neighbor once supported life in some form — and still may.

"Life on Earth is very tenacious," said Ken Edgett, one of the scientists involved in the research. "On Mars, if life ever existed in water and the water has stayed liquid, then life also could be hanging out where the water is."

Edgett and others analyzed a series of Mars photos taken between 1997 and 2006, looking for changes in the terrain. Among these nearly 100,000 images were two areas in southern Mars where they found new, but dry, water channels.

After comparing the sites to earlier pictures taken by the Mars Global Surveyor, the scientists concluded these new channels were carved out by the brief flow of liquid water, enough to fill as many as 10 swimming pools, they estimated.

It may not be a smoking gun, but "it's a squirting gun," said Edgett, who works for a private company that contracts with NASA. The announcement at NASA headquarters coincides with an article on the findings in the journal Science.

Where the water originated is still unknown, although some scientists theorize that it spurted from underground reservoirs beneath the surface. Also unknown is how much liquid water is on Mars and whether it would be acidic.

Liquid water on Mars has intrigued scientists since early astronomers first trained their telescopes on the red planet. Mars has ice caps similar to Earth, and it was believed the presence of ice at the poles hinted at unfrozen water elsewhere.

Mapping missions to Mars during the 1970s revealed dry riverbeds on the surface — evidence the planet once had water above ground. Subsequent trips also confirmed that frost blanketed parts of Mars during its winter.

The search for water intensified in the early 2000s with visits by a new generation of spacecraft. In 2002, the Mars Odyssey, an orbiting science lab, used scanners to locate reservoirs of frozen ice just below Mars' surface.

Two years later, a robotic rover on the surface found rocks that scientists think were once covered in water. Tests of Mars' atmosphere have shown the presence of trace amounts of water vapor in the air too

But evidence of liquid water has remained elusive.

"The Holy Grail for us has been modern, liquid water," said David Beaty, at top scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The California-based institute oversees robotic exploration.

Beaty said NASA could take a couple of steps to confirm the findings, which were made by Malin Space Science Systems. Among them would be the use of high-resolution cameras and a special radar that can detect the presence of shallow water.

However, NASA cannot send either of its Mars rovers to investigate. The terrain is too rough and potential water sites fall under strict, planetary protections — similar to a wildlife refuge.

The concern is that rovers could bring Earth bacteria to sites where Mars' organisms may live, potentially corrupting future data from these protected sites.

"Basically it means that (robot or human explorers) could discover bacteria from Florida, rather than Mars," said John Rummel, senior scientist for astro-biology for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

NASA has a method of disinfecting interplanetary equipment to prevent this contamination, but neither rover underwent this cleaning.