“Life on Mars? This is the question a million dollars “- The World

Le Monde | 09/29/2015 at 12h36 • Updated 09/29/2015 at 12:42 | By Hervé Morin (Interview by)

Read also: Salt water would flow on Mars

These new observations, they provide unprecedented evidence on the presence of salt water on Mars, especially compared to your publication May in Nature Geoscience

Yes. Our article and it uses completely different data to identify the presence of liquid water on the surface of Mars. If the attendance has been characterized even in recent geological time, the current presence of water, brines, rested only on essentially theoretical and thermodynamic arguments. On the other hand, coulees [RSL that researchers call for "Recurring slope lineae" recurring dark lines] indicate a seasonal activity fluid, but so far the fluid in question remained unknown, even though water remained the leading candidate.

It does not surprise me they found hydrated salts that form when the water evaporated. But this article provides a direct link between theoretical models and geomorphological observations, which represents an important step in the study of the stability and activity of water on the surface of Mars. Now, indeed, it should be noted that this is not the water that was directly identified, but the effect of the brine and the post-evaporation residue.

Life as we know it on Earth would she have had a chance to grow and persist in such tanks?

This is the question one million dollars. It’s hard to say. On one hand, we do not know very well what are the limits of life in extreme environments on Earth, particularly regarding highly concentrated liquid salts where water activity, that is ie its capacity to be available for possible biological reactions, decreases at very high concentrations. These very high concentrations are nevertheless necessary to maintain stable liquid at very low temperatures to prevent freezing. Therefore the higher the temperature drop, the greater the stability of liquid requires high salt concentrations. It is a fact impossible to avoid.

On the other hand, if life developed on Mars, so she probably had hundreds of millions of years to adapt to increasingly difficult conditions. So for now, there is really no definitive answer to this, but there are other objections to the current presence of life on Mars, as the total absence of carbon. It is therefore necessary to take things with large tweezers …

Is it easy to get drinking water from these brines, for colonization of this planet?

Here in against the answer is yes, in principle. Recondensant and evaporating the water, it is possible to separate the salts and recover almost pure water.