All About Fireflies and Possible Liquid Water on Mars

29 August 2011

An image combining orbital imagery with 3-D modeling shows flows that appear in spring and summer on a slope inside Newton crater on Mars.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Christopher Cruise.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. Today, we tell about evidence of liquid water on the planet Mars. We also consider a theory that the Earth once had a small second moon. And we celebrate summertime with a report about creatures known to light up the night sky.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: An American spacecraft orbiting Mars shows it is possible that the planet could someday support human life. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found the best evidence yet that liquid water flows on Mars during the planet’s warm season.

Charles Bolden heads the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He says NASA’s Mars Exploration Program keeps bringing scientists closer to learning if Mars could support some form of life. He says the program has shown that the planet is an important goal for future human exploration.

BOB DOUGHTY: The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter studied many mountain slopes across the planet’s southern hemisphere. The dark lines of mountain sides are said to look like fingers. The marks appear and disappear with the seasons.

The marks appear when temperatures on Mars rise. They look larger as they go downhill. When it gets cold, these streaks disappear. But they are seen again on the planet during the next spring, or warming season.