Stop me if you've heard this one before: astronomers announced in July that they'd found water on Mars.
No, seriously. I know they've said something that sounds like that before, but this is different — this is *liquid* water. Probably.
See, previously they'd found solid ice, and then found evidence for liquid water billions of years in the past, and then signs that sometimes a little bit of water runs across the surface in the Martian summer before evaporating away. But *this* time, astronomers reckon they've spotted a lake of briny water down under the surface. Which is exciting — so, could it mean life?! Hmmmm.
SHOW NOTES
Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.
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Emily at the University of York: www.york.ac.uk/physics/people/brunsden/
Chris online: kipstewart.com
To view the podcast chapter list and artwork in this episode, you could do worse than use the Overcast app on iOS, or Pocket Casts on Android. (Other podcast players are available, though they may not handle mp3 chapters nicely.)
Some of the things we talk about in this episode:
Mars is *still* having a bit of a dust storm: https://mars.nasa.gov/weather/storm-watch-2018/
Name the ExoMars rover! (Please, no Marsy McMarsfaces, OK?) https://events.airbus.com/exomarsnamecomp
The Lunar Eclipse, 27 July 2018, livestream replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqBStEIVF8o
So, water on Mars, eh? https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mars-may-have-lake-liquid-water-search-life
The scientific paper: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2018/07/24/science.aar7268
The Mars Express mission: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express
Lake Vostok: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok
All the times we’ve found water on Mars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars