MIT’s Mars experts are giddy about the planet’s water discovery
The announcement on Monday that scientists had discovered evidence of flowing salty liquid water on the surface of Mars landed with a splash locally.
Boston.com reached out to several MIT professors studying Mars in various aspects to get their thoughts and expertise on the recent discovery. As you would expect, they were enthusiastic.
“I’m excited about this,’’ said Kerri Cahoy, an MIT assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics who has done research for NASA. “They have made, in my opinion, a milestone step forward.’’
J. Taylor Perron, an MIT Associate Professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, has studied the ancient history of water on Mars. The planet’s terrain shows evidence that it once had rivers and lakes, and possibly an ocean, billions of years ago, which have long since dried up.
“The new thing and the exciting thing about this discovery is that liquid water is still flowing now, even though Mars, otherwise, is basically a cold desert,’’ Perron said. “News like this, that hopefully gets people excited about Mars, is fantastic.’’
Ben Weiss, an MIT Professor of Planetary Sciences, has focused his study on Mars’s ancient magnetic field, which died billions of years ago. He and other scientists have hypothesized that the magnetic field’s death is related to the destruction of the planet’s atmosphere and climate.
“This kind of discovery reopens the possibility that Mars is not some kind of dead body,’’ Weiss said. “To actually see liquid water or at least a brine flowing on the surface, that’s kind of mind-blowing.’’
Weiss, Perron, and Cahoy all said that the discovery isn’t completely out of the blue, and had been hypothesized as a potential explanation previously. Still, it’s a big moment.
“A lot of people are saying it’s incremental,’’ Cahoy said, “but really it’s a new finding and it’s really exciting to see someone put data together with models to say that [conclusively there is] water.’’
“This is gonna be something we all remember as an important discovery,’’ Weiss said.
Gallery: What Boston looks like from outer space.
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