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Are these pictures of water flowing on Mars, right now?

http://io9.com/are-these-pictures-of-water-flowing-on-mars-right-now-1520115138

by aditya • 12 years ago

2 1 12 years ago

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lutusp• 12 years ago

Simple answer -- no. Water requires two things that the present surface of Mars doesn't have -- a higher temperature, and a higher atmospheric pressure.

Water may burst out onto the surface from a subsurface pressurized area and sublimate (become vapor) within seconds, but articles like this create a false impression -- that there could be standing water at the surface of Mars in the present. This is not possible.

Streaks such as are sometimes seen could be a very brief appearance of brackish water in the process of sublimating, essentially boiling away within seconds, but it's not water as we understand that term. I wish people who write articles like this would first learn a little physics.

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