A Mars-orbiting spacecraft has spotted a subterranean natural plumbing system that might have ferried water beneath the surface of the red planet in the distant past.A Mars-orbiting spacecraft has spotted a subterranean natural plumbing system that might have ferried water beneath the surface of the red planet in the distant past.
New Mars pictures indicate that lots of groundwater once flowed through
The new pictures show that Martian rocks in this sandy landscape are riddled with small cracks.
These cracks bear telltale signs that fluid—probably water—seeped through them hundreds of millions of years ago.
Prominent riblike structures along the cracks, for instance, suggest that running water dissolved minerals in the Martian soil, forming a kind of cement.
The water also dissolved dark minerals out of the rocks, leaving light-colored "halos" around the cracks.
These findings are exciting, because they suggest that similar water-filled fractures might still exist beneath the Martian surface, scientists said.
"What we see at the surface today are glimpses of what used to be underground," Okubo said.
Link & Image: National Geographic
Tags: Mars | Water | Planet | Space | Astronomy
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