Determining if life ever existed on another planet is one of the main goals of space exploration. Since it is believed that liquid water is a basic ingredient for life, an important step in the search for extraterrestrial life is to determine if liquid water exists in other planets. The recent discoveries of liquid saline water or brines, and evidence for methane on Mars have excited the science community by reviving the possibility of extant microbial life in this nearby planet. This presentation will describe the discovery of evidence for liquid water by Phoenix and new photometric and spectral evidence that liquid saline water exists on Mars.
Sponsored by the Physics Department.