The search for life on Mars is still being conducted. While life on Earth will be different from what could possibly be found on Mar, the discovery of even the most primordial evidence of life would heavily impact what researchers know about Space. Any existence of water on Mars is one of the stepping stones needed for life to exist on Mars, therefore finding water on Mars is a key aspect of our research on that planet. “Did water once flow on the surface of Mars” is an opinion article that contributes many viewpoints on whether Mars ever held water. It is contributed to by three different people, each with their own distinct view on this topic. In the intro, it connects the possibility of water on Mars, and how that possibility could lead …show more content…
One key argument used is that Mars’ extreme temperatures are too extreme for Mars to be capable of ever holding a large amount of water. This builds on an assumption that that was made in “NASA’S Rover Detects Water on Mars” is an NPR broadcast, where a scientist who had helped send out the rover, Curiosity, said that water was recently discovered by the Curiosity in a place where there was expected to be no water, on Mars’ equator. It was said that this was surprising because the temperatures on the equator are too extreme to support any existence of water, which is also an argument that was made in “Did Water once Flow on the Surface of Mars” where they establish that a majority of researchers agree that Mars doesn’t meet the criteria in atmosphere and in temperature to hold water other than the water ice on the poles, leading into a great example of “If all the water in the atmosphere condensed on the surface, its depth would be less than the width of a human hair.” In “Red Planet: Waterlogged Salts on Mars” is an article discussing how there are dark streaks found on ground and crater walls that seem to be caused by remnants of salt water in the past. They think that these dark streaks are salt deposits left over from flowing salt water. These streaks disappear depending on the current season of Mars, generally appearing when it is “reaching midday highs of at least 250K (-9[degrees]F)”. The scientists who discovered these streaks theorize that because of Mars temperature, “these areas are too cold for pure liquid water to create downhill flows.”, all water is frozen, but then there being salt in the water would lower the freezing point, causing it to melt, creating flows of water beneath the surface of the soil. In “The Case for Flowing Water on Mars is Drying Up”, They bring up the