Liquid on Mars found

yes, this discovery is important! but i think the scientist alredy found the water on mars a long time agao. here's an article about in, dated in 2003 Mars Ice is Mostly Water: Good for Biologists, Bad for Terraformers By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 02:00 pm ET 13 February 2003 The uncovering of an apparent error in atmospheric models of Mars dating back more than three decades suggests that both of the permanently frozen polar caps are made mostly of water ice and contain very little frozen carbon dioxide. The news is good, in a lukewarm sense, for biologists, who figure water is the key ingredient for any possible life on Mars. It falls short, however, of revealing actual liquid water, which is what even the hardiest known critters need to survive. The news is rather dismal for "terraformers," who would use the Red Planet's carbon dioxide to engineer a greenhouse effect and turn the cold, dusty little world into a veritable oasis for venturous human colonists. However it is viewed, the new research helps confirm several other recent studies that have fueled a growing suspicion that Mars contains vast quantities of frozen water. False impression Scientists have known since the 1970s that the northern cap of Mars is mostly water ice, but until recently indications were that the southern cap was predominantly if not entirely carbon dioxide, commonly referred to as dry ice. In its gaseous form, carbon dioxide is considered a greenhouse contributor, a substance that naturally helps make up the insulating blanket of atmosphere that keeps Earth cozy and livable. Caltech planetary science professor Andy Ingersoll and his graduate student, Shane Byrne now say a false impression of Mars ice dates back to 1966, when the first spacecraft to visit the planet determined that its atmosphere was composed chiefly of carbon dioxide. Researchers at the time figured the ice caps were carbon dioxide, too, and that they interacted with the atmosphere by evaporation and condensation. Subsequently, the Viking spacecraft found that the north polar cap contained water ice beneath a 3-foot (1-meter) sheet of dry ice, and that the upper layer tends to melt away each summer. The belief persisted that the southern cap was all carbon dioxide. New evidence is the pits The seeds of theoretical change came about three years ago with images supplied by the Mars Global Surveyor. Ingersoll and Byrne examined pictures that Surveyor took of circular pits in south polar ice. The depressions are each 26 feet deep (8 meters) and range in diameter from something akin to a typical sports stadium to more than a half-mile (1,000 meters). The consistent depth had been noted but not adequately explained. The floors of the pits are flat, and the pits grow 3 to 10 feet (1-3 meters) wider each year as ice melts. In a telephone interview, Byrne said he and Ingersoll started some time ago working on various computer models to figure out how the pits could widen but not get deeper. Their resulting hypothesis: At 26 feet down is a transition from dry ice to water ice, which would remain solid at much higher temperatures. Just prior to publishing this new model, new infrared measurements from Odyssey provided "concrete evidence" for the idea, Byrne said, showing that spots in the polar cap corresponding to the floors of the pits are too warm to be made of dry ice and must, therefore, be frozen water. The scientists conclude that a surface veneer of dry ice hides vast amounts of water ice at the south pole. The southern dry ice sheet is thicker -- corresponding to the depth of the pits -- than in the north and does not entirely disappear during summer. The study builds on previous examinations of the strange and ubiquitous pits, dubbed "Swiss cheese" upon their discovery in 2000. The following year, another group of researchers suggested that the melting that is causing the pits to grow might indicate profound climate change is underway on Mars. This past December, a study hinted strongly at the south pole's water ice by noting the degree to which surface temperatures change from night to day. (Separately, the Odyssey probe has also returned compelling evidence for huge stores of water ice at or near the Martian surface and away from the poles.) No place like home The apparent lack of dry ice shoots a theoretical hole in the visionary idea of "terraforming" Mars for possible future human habitation. Terraforming involves purposely fueling greenhouse-like conditions to make the planet warmer, wetter and more Earthlike. The idea straddles a murky line between science fiction and real science, and experts have long argued whether it could ever be accomplished. NASA has, nonetheless, funded studies to consider the possibility. And the notion has many proponents. In its simplest form, terraforming would involve building factories on Mars to convert the planet's raw materials into greenhouse gases, which would warm the atmosphere and in turn melt polar ice, theoretically further raising levels of airborne carbon dioxide."If you wanted to make Mars warm and wet again, you'd need carbon dioxide, but there isn't nearly enough if the polar caps are made of water," Ingersoll said. "Of course, terraforming Mars is wild stuff and is way in the future."Regardless, Ingersoll said, it is questionable whether even a tiny fraction of the necessary carbon dioxide is present on the Red Planet. That would be good news for people ethically opposed to terraforming, who say humans have no right to alter another planet so significantly and should instead concentrate on maintaining the livability of Earth. Terraforming Mars amounts to making "gods out of geeks," as one critic put it. The new study, which will be detailed in the Feb. 14 issue of the journal Science, poses other squarely scientific questions with which researchers must now grapple. Cold and wet Planetary scientists had assumed that Venus, Earth and Mars all harbored similar levels of carbon dioxide. On Venus, it resides mostly in the atmosphere and caused a "runaway greenhouse effect." Earth's carbon dioxide is largely trapped in marine carbonates. Mars, now, simply doesn't appear to have much carbon dioxide. That raises the question of how the planet could ever have been warm and wet, a condition often theorized and used to suggest that life might once have been present and could still exist, burrowed these days into the subsurface."It could be that Mars was a cold, wet planet," Byrne said. "Or it could be that the subterranean plumbing would allow for liquid water to be sealed off underneath the surface."The lack of carbon dioxide might play into the hands of geologists who think water has carved the great canyons on Mars and is still forced to the surface now and then. If Mars has very little carbon dioxide, then the canyons could not have been carved exclusively by carbon dioxide floods, as some researchers contest. Finally, the news is good for future possible crewed science missions to Mars, which would rely on regular ice as a source of drinking water and might even try to convert it into fuel for a return trip.

oh thats great news.,thanks for the information... but it is not proven yet,it only a guess