Mars had life

 
Published: Sunday 15 March 1998

Life and water were once prese (Credit: NASA) researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (nasa) say that water flowed on Mars for a million years. The present findings support the theory that life existed on Mars. According to Wesley Huntress, nasa 's associate administrator for space science, recent photographs from the Mars Global Surveyor orbiting Mars show an ancient riverbed at the bottom of a 2.5-kilometre wide canyon called "Nanedi Vallis" near the planet's equator.

The twisting, winding canyon -- similar to the turned taken by the Mississippi River -- provides "clear evidence of a fast-flowing river bed that changed its course several times", says Huntress.

This is the first evidence of long-term water flow, not just a catastrophic event. Scientists think that canyon probably took one million years to form. The presence of water in liquid form on Mars points inevitably to life.

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