Finding water on Mars has been like “Finding Neverland.”
Scientists in the past have launched various Mars missions to know if microbial “alien” life existed or exists on Planet Mars.
In 2006, Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which began orbiting Mars in 1997, provided images of two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them.
In 2008, laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander identified water in a soil sample.
In July 2011, scientists claimed to have found traces of water under a thin varnish of iron oxide.
More recently, NASA scientists on Thursday revealed that they have found flowing salt water on the red planet.
The water appears in spring and summer on a slope inside Mars' Newton crater, as observed by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on May 30, 2011.
“Salt deposits over much of Mars indicate brines were abundant in Mars' past. These recent observations suggest brines still may form near the surface today in limited times and places,” NASA said in a statement.
Start the slideshow to view images from NASA’s past Mars expeditions suggesting evidence of water on the Martian surface.
A Russian made space craft set to carry life to Mars' mysterious Phobos moon has suffered an engine failure, leaving it stranded in Earth's orbit.REUTERS/NASASigns of water erosion and debris flow are seen in this high-resolution view of gullies eroded into the wall of a meteor impact crater in Noachis Terra on Mars, taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and released on June 22, 2000. The image shows channels and associated aprons of debris, interpreted to have formed by groundwater seepage, surface runoff, and debris flow.REUTERA handout picture taken by Mars Express, January 15 from a height of 273 km shows a channel (Reull Vallis) once formed by flowing water east of the Hellas basin on Mars January 23, 2004.REUTERS/NASAThis image, taken by the microscopic imager on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, shows a geological region of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars dubbed "El Capitan." "El Capitan", which is pocked with indentations about a centimetre (0.4 inch) long, has the distinctive texture familiar to geologists as the sites where crystals of salt minerals form within rocks that sit in briny water. Parts of Mars were once "drenched" with so much water that life could easily have existed there, NASA said on March 2, 2004.REUTERS/NASAAn image shown by NASA officials March 2, 2004, shows a detail of the planet Mars that they claim shows evidence that parts of the planet were once covered in water, at a NASA press conference in Washington. NASA officials concluded that the part of Mars that NASA's Opportunity Rover was exploring was soaking wet in the past. REUTERS/NASAA new gully deposit in a crater in the Centauri Montes Region over a period from 1999 to 2005.NASAA new gully deposit in a crater in the Centauri Montes Region over a period from 1999 to 2005.NASAA small crater on the rim of a large crater as shown in image captured by Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in 2006. NASAA pair of gully channels that emerged, as shown in image captured by Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in 2006.NASAAn undated photo released by NASA February 15, 2007 shows the surface of Mars displaying the effects of ancient underground fluids. New images of a craggy, fissure-filled canyon on Mars provided evidence of long-term underground water flows that may have provided a suitable environment for microbial life.REUTERS/NASAGully channels in a crater in the southern highlands of Mars, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, are shown in this image released by NASA September 20, 2007. The gullies emanating from the rocky cliffs near the crater's rim (upper L) show meandering and braided patterns typical of water-carved channels. REUTERS/NASAAn artist's conception shows what NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed, vast Martian glaciers of water ice under protective blankets of rocky debris at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on the Red Planet. Scientists analyzed data from the spacecraft's ground-penetrating radar and report in the November 21, 2008 issue of the journal Science that buried glaciers extend for dozens of miles from edges of mountains or cliffs. REUTERS/NASAAn image combining orbital imagery with 3-D modeling shows salt water flows that appear in spring and summer on a slope inside Mars' Newton crater.NASA
