So NASA announced today that it has evidence of water flowing on the surface of Mars during the warmer seasons and that’s freaking amazing!

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured the strongest evidence yet that salty liquid water flows on the planet’s surface during warm seasons.

Whether or not these salty flows could sustain life depends on how salty they are, says Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, who has reported the findings, along with his colleagues. “If the water is completely saturated with perchlorates [hydrated salts], then life as we know it on Earth wouldn’t be able to survive in that sort of concentrated water,” he says. “But if the water only has a tiny percentage of perchlorates in it, then I think we should be fine.

Source: NewScientist

The presence of water doesn’t equal life but still if another planet in our celestial backyard could harbour life, just think about the possibilities in the universe!  Given enough time, what we consider rare events (like say life) are guaranteed to happen elsewhere.  I just hope I’m alive when we confirm it, that will be a wonderful time. 🙂