Signs of salt water found in the dark footprints of the slopes of Mars
An international research team has detected hydrated salts in the dark traces that appear on some slopes of Mars. This reinforces the hypothesis that these traces produce liquid salt water. The finding has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
In the high-resolution images taken in recent years it has been observed that some of the slopes of Mars appear and periodically disappear some dark traces. They appear temperate and disappear in cold. Considering the range of temperatures that appear, astronomers thought that liquid salt water could be the one that produced these dark lines, but so far they have not been able to detect neither salt nor water.
Now, applying a new method to the CRISM spectrometer data from NASA's Orbiter Mars Reconnaissance, they have been able to detect salts at the site where the marks appear, namely precipitated hydrated salts from the water. And in nearby lands they have not been found. Therefore, it is very likely that behind these traces there is liquid salt water, as believed.
--> Photo gallery: Dark footprints of the slopes on MarsZu idazle
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