How do Scientist know that there was water present on Mars?

Answer 1

Another Mars question???

This one is simpler than your other question, though. We can tell that water might have been present on Mars because of several unmistakable channels that could only have been caused by water (think Grand Canyon, where a river carved the whole canyon).

How do we know that the channels are there? This question has some history to it...,

Firstly some nondescript astronomist using his telescope one day (this time is somewhere around the invention of cars) looked at Mars with a pretty powerful scope. He could see faint traces and lines on the distant planet, and eagerly reported his findings - that Martians have built canals on their planet. Of course, nobody had any idea that these are simply canals carved by water itself.

Skip all the mania about Martian bugs...

Skip to the 21st century...

We have a HUB high-res satellite-telescope orbiting Earth. Using its powerful lenses, NASA got several good pictures of Mars. These pictures prove that there are water channels on the planet, but these canals are natural rather than artificial. How can we tell? If we apply the grand-canyon theory of where water can carve out giant channels that can be seen from far away, then we have those very channels on Mars. And in any case, the HUB detected a large portion of ice in the northen part of Mars, so technically there is still some water.

And nothing beats an actual visit to Mars, and so we did with a robot known as the Mars Rover. Not only did we find that the channels are irrefutably carved out by water, but we also detected faint traces of hydrogen and oxygen and I think H20 itself (some of the oxygen sadly came from an oxygen tank that somehow landed on Mars).

I'll never talk this long again...

Answer 2

They're basically using Occam's razor.

They see drainage patterns on the surface, as well as types of compounds that (on Earth) only form in the presence of water; put those two together, and the answer is MOST LIKELY that water was present on Mars at least at one time.

However - there's still a possibility that the markings we see and the chemicals that appear may have arisin from some other process we're not familiar with.

Answer 3

They do not Know it, and they feel confident their evidence strongly supports the historical presence of moving surface water on Mars.
As a side note, researchers in Idaho drilled down about 600 feet into a spring. They found a species referred to as methanodites, or methanodes, or something having to do with methane. These researchers went looking into this subterranean well because they feel the environment best duplicates their model for water beneath the surface on Mars.
These Idaho methanodes (or whatever) are of the life form we expect to find in the water of Mars.

Answer 4

There's water on Mars right now..! It's locked up in the polar ice caps but can be detected by spectroscopic analysis of light reflected from the caps.

There's lots of evidence that Mars once had a huge amount of water in the past, mainly seen in the obvious river channels visible on the planet's surface.

Finally, there's a photo of a crater wall taken from one of the orbiters circling Mars. In it there's no sign of recent water flow, but in a second photo of the same crater wall taken months later you can see what's obviously a trail left where water has flowed.

Answer 5

Simple answer. The surface of Mars has been groved and cut as if streams or bodies of water once existed. I.E. Grand Canyon here on Earth is just one example. Another reason, Mars has polar caps.

Answer 6

aww Roy your so cute!

spot on thats right!!!

stole my answer (nah kidding!)

also i believe that they (NASA) found some sedimentary rocks and traces of compounds formed by flowing water

(thanks to the nifty little Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity)

and they have found ice on one of the poles

interesting isnt it!

God bless

Answer 7

For one, there are some very prominent and unmistakable drainage channels.