Some discoveries in science and mathematics can be rather technical to say the least, understood and appreciated by relatively few people who have worked for years in some esoteric subject. Other discoveries can touch the imagination of pretty much every one of us. While reading through a collection of news articles on the train this morning I came across one of the latter which caused me to be come so excited that I temporarily forgot that I was British.<\/p>\n
I turned to the random woman sat next to me and said in an excited voice “They’ve found water on Mars – beyond a shadow of doubt. They’ve as good as tasted it. Look…” and I presented my phone to her with the news article on it. To be fair to her she did make a show of reading it and nodded in encouragement before moving to a seat far, far <\/strong>away from me.<\/p>\n Over the last few years scientists have tantalised us with various snippets of evidence that point to the possibility of there being water on Mars. For example, back in 2002, NASA Space probe Odyssey<\/a> discovered large quantities of Hydrogen under the surface of Mars via Gamma Ray Spectrometry<\/a>. From this data it was inferred that there might be large quantites of water under the Martian surface but no one could be totally sure until a sample of it was scooped up and tested in a laboratory More information concerning the history of discoveries concerning the discovery of water on Mars can be found at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n Recently, NASA sent a laboratory to Mars in the form of the Phoenix Mars Lander<\/a> which scooped up a sample of Martian soil, tested it and confirmed that it did indeed contain water<\/a>. So now it’s official – Mars has water beyond any doubt which is a very cool scientific fact in my humble opinion.<\/p>\n This news has been spreading through the web like wildfire – and rightly so – but before we get too carried away we need to take a step back and think about what we actually know. (Take the following with a handful of salt – I am not a planetary scientist and, therefore, may be talking rubbish but I have included the links that led me to making these statements)<\/p>\n They have found water but they do not know its chemical composition yet. It may need a lot of processing before it’s drinkable<\/a> due to a high concentration of salt and acid or it may be as pure as (Earth) snow – we simply don’t know. The answer to this question is important if humans are ever going to visit Mars – they’ll need a drink!<\/p>\n