A numerical model indicates that some of -- and possibly all -- the gullies found on Mars were not caused by flowing liquid water. According to a paper published December 21 in Nature Geoscience (DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2619), Martian gullies can result from geologic dry ice processes that have no terrestrial analogues and do not require liquid water. Such dry ice processes may have helped shape the evolution of landforms elsewhere on the martian surface. The areas around the gullies probably do not provide potential habitable environments for life in Mars's recent past, as has been widely speculated. NASA's evidence also indicates the gullies were formed by dry ice rather than liquid water.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @06:10PM
All the Martian life forms we've been imagining are even weirder than we thought.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 29 2015, @08:45AM
But not nearly as weird as the AC below!