Scientists have long assured us that geological features on the surface of Mars showed us that water was once abundant on the planet. This "fact" fired the imagination of generations of sci-fi writers and their readers, inspired many for whom colonization of other planets still remains a dream, and led to all sorts of theories as to how a planetary ecology could be radically transformed, as Mars' evidently had been.
Well, just because a scientist says it, it ain't necessarily so.
FOX News reports:
New images obtained by a sharp-eyed Martian satellite reveal that some Red Planet features once thought to have been carved by flowing water were in fact created by other processes.Read the whole thing here.
It seems that the "Wet Mars" scenario has taken a major hit. The new findings do not eliminate the possibility that water exists on Mars, but it almost surely rules out the idea that at one point in the planet's past water was abundant.
Oh well!
Doesn't mean though that I can't still read ERB and dream of John Carter, Dejah Thoris and Thuvia, Maid of Mars.
