![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eComparing photos from 1999 with those taken this year has turned up what looks very much like evidence of short-lived running water on Mars sometime over the last several years. The flows are not in the older images and they are the wrong color for sand-flows. They really look like liquid water seeped briefly out the side of a crater to flow down the slope before it evaporated or froze. Given the special importance of water for life, does that hold open the possibility that there is life in the Martian soil?
Also new are 20 impact craters over those 7 years. They range from about 2 meters (7 feet) across to about 148 meters (486 feet). That isn't a count for the whole planet though. The new images only cover about 30% of the surface, so extrapolating, this could mean something like 10 new impacts a year. This means that the smooth areas of Mars' surface are much younger than previously thought. But it is also a little scary. I wouldn't like to be nearby when something hits the ground to blast a crater the size of a several suburban houses.
Also new are 20 impact craters over those 7 years. They range from about 2 meters (7 feet) across to about 148 meters (486 feet). That isn't a count for the whole planet though. The new images only cover about 30% of the surface, so extrapolating, this could mean something like 10 new impacts a year. This means that the smooth areas of Mars' surface are much younger than previously thought. But it is also a little scary. I wouldn't like to be nearby when something hits the ground to blast a crater the size of a several suburban houses.