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NASA Announces News Briefing On Mars Orbiter Science Finding


Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 2 p.m. EDT on Aug. 4

WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a news briefing on Thursday, Aug. 4, at 2 p.m. EDT about a significant new Mars science finding. The briefing will be held in the NASA Headquarters James E. Webb Auditorium, 300 E St. SW in Washington.

The new finding is based on observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2006. MRO is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

The briefing panelists are:
- Philip Christensen, geophysicist, Arizona State University, Tempe
- Colin Dundas, research geologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Ariz.
- Alfred McEwen, planetary geologist, University of Arizona, Tucson
- Michael Meyer, Mars Exploration Program lead scientist, NASA Headquarters
- Lisa Pratt, biogeochemist, Indiana University, Bloomington

NASA Spacecraft Data Suggest Water Flowing on Mars08.04.11 An image combining orbital imagery with 3-D modeling shows flows that appear in spring and summer on a slope inside Mars' Newton crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
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This series of images shows warm-season features that might be evidence of salty liquid water active on Mars today. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
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This map of Mars shows relative locations of three types of findings related to salt or frozen water, plus a new type of finding that may be related to both salt and water. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/UA/LANL/MSSS
› Full image and caption PASADENA, Calif. -- Observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed possible flowing water during the warmest months on Mars.

"NASA's Mars Exploration Program keeps bringing us closer to determining whether the Red Planet could harbor life in some form,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, “and it reaffirms Mars as an important future destination for human exploration."

Dark, finger-like features appear and extend down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer, fade in winter, and return during the next spring. Repeated observations have tracked the seasonal changes in these recurring features on several steep slopes in the middle latitudes of Mars' southern hemisphere.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/n ... 10804.html