from Hacker News

Are these pictures of water flowing on Mars, right now?

by aditya on 2/11/14, 6:44 AM with 1 comments

  • by lutusp on 2/11/14, 7:11 AM

    Simple answer -- no. Water requires two things that the present surface of Mars doesn't have -- a higher temperature, and a higher atmospheric pressure.

    Water may burst out onto the surface from a subsurface pressurized area and sublimate (become vapor) within seconds, but articles like this create a false impression -- that there could be standing water at the surface of Mars in the present. This is not possible.

    Streaks such as are sometimes seen could be a very brief appearance of brackish water in the process of sublimating, essentially boiling away within seconds, but it's not water as we understand that term. I wish people who write articles like this would first learn a little physics.