Features called
recurring slope lineae on Mars, which tend to appear in warmer weather, appear consistent with water flow.
Granular flows at recurring
slope lineae on Mars indicate a limited role for liquid water.
But areas that may contain near - surface water or ice, such as the recurring
slope lineae where watery brines may periodically run down steep hills, are designated as «special regions» that require more care and would be currently off limits to spacecraft without further sterilization.
Over the past decade scientists believed they'd found a smoking gun for water on Mars: dark streaks in sand on the slopes of dry gullies, called «recurring
slope lineae» (RSL), which show up around the same time each season.
The watery - looking features, called
slope lineae, show up in the warmest season and gradually fill out the slope over time.
It is also possible that
slope lineae are not water at all.
These downhill flows, known as recurring
slope lineae (RSL), often have been described as possibly related to liquid water.
What has McEwen the most excited, though, are newfound markings that he calls «recurring
slope lineae.»
NeMO could find resources like shallow ice at low latitudes, he suggests, and could study whether there are special regions of Mars astronauts should avoid contaminating such as locations with recurring
slope lineae.
These «recurring
slope lineae» could conceivably be brines of liquid water fed by aquifers very close to the surface, some researchers say.
«But we can't go to certain areas on Mars, like recurring
slope lineae or... under patches of ice.
«Whilst planetary scientists already know that the surface of Mars has «mass - wasting» features — such as dune flows, gullies, and recurring
slope lineae — which occur as a result of sediment transportation down a slope, the debate about what is forming them continues.
The intriguing streaks, called recurring
slope lineae, were first spotted in 2010 in images from the MRO's HiRISE (High - Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera.
The recurring
slope lineae, most of which are roughly a few meters wide and tens to hundreds of meters long, are common throughout the planet's equator and mid-latitudes.
Primary among those ingredients, of course, is water, which makes the recurring
slope lineae a prime spot to search for signs of extraterrestrial microbes.
If NASA plans to send any mission near the recurring
slope lineae, he added, scientists would carefully study the potential to contaminate Mars and take steps to prevent it.
Scientists can't agree on whether Martian features called recurring
slope lineae (RSL) are briny water — or not.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has snapped a stunning image of structures known as recurring
slope lineae (RSL) in the slopes of the Valles Marineris canyon system located near Mars» equator.
Phrases with «slope lineae»