Seasonal Streaks Point to Recent Flowing Water on Mars
What creates these changing streaks on Mars?
Called Recurring Slope Linea (RSL), these dark features start on the slopes of
hills and craters but don't usually extend to the bottom.
What's even more unusual is that
these streaks appear to change with the season,
appearing fresh and growing during warm weather and disappearing during the winter.
After much study, including a
recent chemical analyses, a leading hypothesis has emerged that these streaks are likely created by
new occurrences
of liquid salty water that evaporates as it flows.
The source for the briny
water is still unclear, with two
possibilities being condensation from the Martian atmosphere and underground reservoirs.
An exciting inference is that if these
briny flows are not too salty, they may be able to support
microbial life on Mars even today.
The featured image of a hill inside
Horowitz Crater was investigated by instruments aboard the robotic
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
that has been returning data from Mars since 2006.