We have all heard for ages that Mars, the red planet does not have any significant water except for some water vapor in atmosphere and water ice at the poles.  But at the recent MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR SCIENCE UPDATE news conference NASA scientists presented evidence that Mars has a liquid water reserve.  NASA TV’s live broadcast of the conference showed photographic evidence taken by Mars Exploration Program.

The evidence suggests that Liquid water - a key ingredient for organic life - appears to have flowed over the surface of Mars at least twice in the past seven years.  That means the Red Planet could be capable of harboring life.  The discovery points to underground deposits of liquid water rather then on the surface of the planet.  These new findings may well vault the red planet back into the uppermost ranks of places to hunt for forms of life beyond Earth.

The atmosphere of Mars is so thin and the temperature so cold that liquid water cannot persist at the surface; it would rapidly evaporate or freeze.  Researchers propose that water could remain liquid long enough, after breaking out from an underground source, to carry debris downslide before totally freezing.  The two fresh deposits documented by NASA are each several hundred meters, or yards, long.

Wherever liquid water is found on Earth, there is also life, and most scientists consider its presence a prerequisite for the existence of primitive extraterrestrial organisms.  If it sometimes exists on Mars today, it raises the very real prospect that life may not only have evolved there in the past, but could still survive there in modern times.  The Science Fiction Alien may not be a fiction anymore.   In science fiction we read abour or watch aliens with different shapes but life on Mars might be just microscopic bacteria-like life form.