NASA finds water on Mars and on the moon
NASA has finally found evidence of water on the surface of Mars. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been able to locate evidence of ice in craters that were probably formed by meteorites crashing into the planet’s surface. The discovery of the crater ice has led scientists to believe that the ice sheets below the Martian surface are much larger than previously suspected. The craters lie approximately half way between the North Pole and the red-planet’s equator. Scientists also say that the water in the craters is almost pure which has come as a surprise because they expected any ice to be a mixture of dirt and water.
The discovery of water on Mars came just one day after scientists found that there is a substantial amount of water on the Earth’s moon causing some to speculate that there could soon be a permanent manned base up there. The discovery that water is sticking to the moons surface was made by Chandrayaan-1 and comes just two weeks before a NASA probe is due to smash into the moon near its South Pole in an attempt to throw up some ice.
According to Shane Byrne at the University of Arizona, the discovery of water on Mars was a case of lucky timing. He said that just two-hundred days after the Orbiter spotted the ice it had disappeared and that if the probe had passed over the craters a few months after it did scientists would just have seen a few large holes containing Martian dirt.