Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Recent water on Mars - in a manner of speaking.

Planetary geologists at Brown University have found a gully fan system on Mars that they think was formed about 1.25 million years ago by flowing water. That may seem like an age, but in geological terms it's a blink of an eye, and if ever proven, means Mars had flowing water a lot more recently than previously supposed. The gully system is located on the inside of a crater in Promethei Terra, an area of cratered highlands to be found in the southern mid-latitudes. Mars Daily has an excellent story on the discovery.