NASA will hold a press conference Tuesday at 2 P.M. ET to announce "significant findings" about water on Mars based on evidence from its Opportunity Mars rover.
If there is liquid water presently at the surface of Mars, as several lines of rover evidence have hinted, then most scientists agree there is the possibility that life could exist.
A few years ago, we "knew" that there was no water on Mars. And we've been fairly certain that there's no life. Now we find that there's a lot more water than we ever would have thought. The serious search for life will be renewed.
It just goes to show you how hard it is to get to know a whole planet.
Posted by Phil at March 2, 2004 06:21 AM | TrackBackThe "significant findings" might be even more significant than finding water.
We'll soon know.
Posted by: Stephen Gordon at March 2, 2004 08:02 AMHere's where you can go to watch the coverage via internet:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
2:00pm eastern
1:00pm central
12:00pm mountain
11:00am pacific
I missed the first ten minutes or so but it sounded like they announced firm (firmer ?) evidence of water at the Meridiani (Opportunity) site. But the chief scientist was adamant that they didn't know how long ago the water was there, or how long it was there. There may not even have been any surface water, just ground water.
Posted by: Andrew Salamon at March 2, 2004 03:20 PM