Flowing Water on Mars

New evidence that water may still flow across the surface of Mars:

Flows of saltwater may ooze from rocky outcrops on Mars. Seasonal dark streaks on some Martian slopes could come from briny water, American and Swiss researchers suggest in the Aug. 5 Science.

Still, the researchers haven’t actually detected any water, frozen or liquid. Nor can they explain how the water would be replenished in the dry, harsh Martian environment.

But given how the lines grow and fade each year with the seasons, the team’s brine conclusion is “entirely justified,” says Michael Hecht of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who was not involved with the research. If the idea pans out, the stripes will add to previous evidence suggesting salty water continues to be widespread on the Red Planet. So far, no one has found undisputed evidence of liquid water currently active on the planet’s surface. . . .

Looking at images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the research team discovered lines that appear in late spring and grow throughout the summer, fading as the weather cools. Some look to be near small channels and all are on steep bedrock, such as crater rims. Hundreds to thousands of the skinny streaks appear at each of seven sites that cluster in the middle southern latitudes, a location akin to the subtropics on Earth. The researchers spotted other candidate sites elsewhere, including to either side of the planet’s equator.

Abstract of original article here. Personally, I don't think these seeps will turn out out to harbor life, for reasons I have explained before, but it is kind of cool that this oozing could be detected from space.