Mars Water... This is Sounding Real

Emily Lakdawalla wrote about recent news of water on Mars, in the Planetary Society's blog. Long ago some people imagined that they saw canals on Mars, and they turned out not to be there at all. But this is different. We're not squinting through old-fashioned telescopes. We're actually on Mars now, or at least highly sensitive machines that we built are on Mars now.

Water is the key to life as we know it. If there is water under the surface of Mars now--water that apparently breaches the surface occasionally--it is an unprecedented opportunity. If it is verified, we humans will have our first opportunity to directly observe another planetary environment that also has liquid water. It may be the first step in understanding whether life is extraordinarily rare, or nearly as common as the presence of liquid water! And would such life, if found, resemble Earth life or not? We live in a very exciting time.