Daniel Gutierrez

ENC1101
12/5/15
Water on Mars and why it matters
Recently NASA has confirmed that on the surface of Mars there is liquid water. In the
past few decades satellite images have shown that at one point liquid water flowed on the
surface. Also thanks to spectrometer technology, we have to some capacity found where the
remaining amount of water is on the planet. With this discovery there is a real chance that we
may find some form of life on the planet.
Mars geology shows clear evidence that there was water on its surface at one point in its
history. The portion of the Martian surface that date back to 3.7 billion years and older show
extensive geological features that appear to have been formed by liquid water. Such features
suggest that water was either more abundant or more stable at the surface then (Jakosky 71).
Geological features like impact crates from asteroids on the planet are heavily eroded which
could have only happened with a substantial amount of water (Jakosky 71). Many of the asteroid
impacts on Earth have all eroded millions of years ago thanks to the constant movement of water
on our planets surface. But erosion does not just erase significant land marks on Earths surface,
they also create rivers and deep canyons, the most prominent being the Grand Canyon located in
Arizona, which ties into another significant find made by photographs taken from satellites
orbiting Mars. Maps based on Mars Odyssey images shows that the valley link into densely
branched drainage networks, with the smallest channels reaching right up to the divides between
watersheds. Their complexity rivals Earths river networks (Lakdawalla 16). Figure 1. shows

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water streaks on the planet surface that must have been formed from a consistent amount of
water flowing through the channel, meaning that Mars must have had a very active water cycle
in its distant past. If Mars had once had a significant amount of water in its atmosphere, where
did it go, and is there any left? Only within the last few decades have we managed to answer that
question.
Today much of the water on Mars is either frozen underground or too a very little amount
in the atmosphere. Spacecraft- and Earthtelescope measurements, however, have identified
and mapped water vapor and ice clouds in the
atmosphere, ice within the near surface regions at
high latitudes, and ice on the surface in polar
regions (Jakosky 71 ). We have known since the
thatonce
thereflowed
is water
the atmosphere
Figure 1. 60s
Water
onin
Mars
enough to thanks to telescope based spectrograms; with these
erode the rock to create these water streaks.
measurements astronomers have even found the planet still has a functioning water cycle today
(Jakosky 71). Scientists hypothesize that the water enters the atmosphere during the summer
season when the hydrogen-dioxide frost retreats revealing water-ice deposits in the polar caps.
This ice then melts and evaporates into the lower reaches of the atmosphere, from there it moves
to the center latitudes and lands on the regolith (the global covering of loose material) (Jakosky
71). With as dry as Mars looks it is incredible that there still water circulating in the
atmosphere, to the naked eye it is not noticeable, but that fact alone is amazing and has quit a
few implications on our chances on finding life, but that is something we will get to later.
Another significant point is that there is under frost of water still hidden under the surface of the
planet. Most of Marss remaining water supply is hidden underground, frozen into a global ice

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table. In many places, the ice is deep below the surface, but in the vast northern lowland plains it
lies just centimeters underground (Lakdawalla 17). With the fact that most of the water is
frozen and hidden underground has lead NASA to launch and spend time on multiple expeditions
to find these ice deposits. NASA in 2007 launched the Phoenix lander to dig up and examine
samples and the MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) spotted multiple asteroid craters exposing
several ice deposits on the surface (Lakdawalla 17). Thanks to all the spectrograph data collected
these last few years, it has revealed as of late one of the most significant discovery made on the
red planet.
We have found that there is liquid water still on the surface of Mars. NASAs Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured the strongest evidence yet that salty liquid water flows on
the planets surface during warm seasons (Wong 1). This complete changes past assumptions of
how water can stay liquid on a planet like Mars. This discovery is made by data that was
collected many years ago. Recurring slope lineae dark streaks that appear, get longer, and fade
in each Martian year have long been thought to represent signs of the flowing water. Now that
idea has been backed up by data from the Orbiters onboard spectrometer, named CRISM, which
analyses reflected sunlight to detect pattern that indicate what minerals are present on the
Surface (Wong 2). It took a few years to go through the data and to filter what it says. NASA is
now working to get the Curiosity rover to the site to analyze the compounds on the slope for
possible signs of life (Wong 3). Even though the finding are new and there is still mountains of
work to be done this discovery has reignited the hunt for life on the red planet. Which opens up a
very important question. Can life ever existed on a cold and dry planet like Mars? Even though
water is found these northern slopes, can life survive in them? Whether or not these salty flows
could sustain life depends on how salty they are, says Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of

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Technology in Atlanta, who has reported the findings, along with his colleagues. If the water is
completely saturated with perchlorates [hydrated salts], then life as we know it on Earth wouldnt
be able to survive in that sort of concentrated water, he says. But if the water only has a tiny
percentage of perchlorates in it, then I think we should be fine (Wong 2). So if a high
concentrated of salt would prove inhospitable for life to survive, what would be the conditions
necessary for life to develop?
With this new discovery it could open the possibility of finding life on the red planet.
Whether organisms could exist in the Martian brine is impossible to know yet, but the fact that
the water is there at all is a very good sign (Kluger 2). But maybe the life we are looking is not
in the water found the slopes in the northern regions of the planet. They could be underground
and have managed to perfectly adapt to this cold and dry environment. In the Martian-type
environment, photoautotrophic microorganism may exist, perhaps using a similar life-style to the
endoliths in Antarctica, which produce their biomass from the CO2 and H2O in the atmosphere
and photo chemically-produced nitrate in the soil (Schulze-Makuch 1477). Like the quote states
above, the microorganisms on Mars might have found a way to collect the compounds they need
from what little there in the environment around them. To gather what little there is around them
these organisms must have developed special adaptations to find what they can get. One option
to cope with these more challenging environmental conditions would be to invent new types of
adaptation. Based on the Viking Lander Biology Experiments [38], Houtkooper and SchulzeMakuch [39] previously hypothesized that organisms might utilize a water-hydrogen peroxide
(H2O-H2O2) mixture rather than water as an intracellular liquid in the current Martian
environment. Using a water-hydrogen peroxide mixture would have the particular advantages in
this cold and dry environment of providing a low freezing point, a source of oxygen, energy and

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hygroscopicity (Schulze-Makuch 1477). These hypothetical adaptations and evolutionary paths
may prove useful in giving future expeditions the clues they need for what to look for when more
aggressive exploration begins.
With this discovery, it has made Mars possibly hold the answer to the question of whether
or not we are alone in the universe. With the chemical compounds needed to create life figured
out, we have a clearer picture of what we need to look for when expeditions to the red planet
become much more aggressive. And if we do find it, it could change the way we see ourselves
explore the solar system and our standing in the universe. We would no longer be simply taking
claim to desolate worlds to conquer, but rather searching for other signs of alien life. And the
arrogance we breed amongst our species would be gone because we would realize that life
outside our planet is more common than we thought, meaning we are not really all that special
anymore. This would change the perceptive how we see the universe and our own selves forever.

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Works Citied

HiRISE. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 14 Jan, 2011.Tucson, Arizona. NASA, JPL-Caltech,

University of Arizona. Web. 27 Nov, 2015
Jakosky, M. Bruce, and Michael T. Mellon. Water on Mars. Physics Today Special Issue,
Planetary Discovery (2004): 71-76. EBSCO. 16 NOV, 2015.
Kluger, Jeffery. Flowing water on Mars means new hope in the search for life. Time 12 Oct.
2015: 20-21. Web.
Lakdawalla, Emily. The History of Water on Mars. Sky & Telescope Sept. 2013: 16-22. Web.
Schulze-Makuch, Dirk, Alexander Schulze-Makuch, and Joop M. Houtkooper. The Physical,
Chemical and Physiological Limits of Life. Life 5.3 (2015): 1472-1486. EBSCO. 27
Nov, 2015
Wong, Sam. Salty water seen flowing on Mars, not far from Curiosity rover. New Scientist. 28
Sep. 2015: 1-3. Web.