# Water on Mars?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-on-mars/423486>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 21, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-on-mars/423486 "2007-10-21T18:08:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-on-mars/423486/1 "2007-10-21T18:08:44Z")

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It seems hat there is evidence of a layer of frozen water, under the surface of Mars. My question: why hasn’t this water sublimated away, in the low air pressure of Mars? Second: assume we send a probe, which detects a huge permafrost layer of frozen warer-is there ant chance that there could be liquide water deeper down? If Mars had water in the past, is it likely that some kind of life wasthere?  
Of course, I’d love to see photos from Mars (showing fossil remains of life). But is there any chance that some life remains today?

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-on-mars/423486/2 "2007-10-21T20:53:36Z")

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Well, the ice at the poles hasn’t sublimed away, so it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s permafrost elsewhere on the planet (which is strongly suspected from some of the rover photos). Liquid water buried deep beneath the surface is certainly a possibility. As for life, I’d say that if there was any on the surface, it’d most likely be microbial in form, and probably in a state of “suspended animation” as it were, because of the extreme cold (micro-organisms do this on Earth, at least one seems to be totally unfazed by liquid nitrogen).

And while there’s always the possibility of “life as we **don’t** know it,” I’d be willing to bet that if there _is_ anything on Mars, we’ll find it has a lot of similarities with Earthly life, because evolution seems to take the same path, no matter where it is. We’ve got animals on Earth that have no common ancestors, but because they fill a similar niche in an eco-system, have genetic similarities. Even the life at the hydrothermal vents isn’t too terribly different, genetic wise, from other life here on Earth. One would think that if it were possible for life to be silicon based, for example, we’d have found at least _some_ trace of it occuring here on Earth, but that hasn’t happened (yet).

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**Author:** ![raindog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@raindog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raindog)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2007, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-on-mars/423486/3 "2007-10-22T02:29:07Z")

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Apparently, NASA found evidence of Dasani on Mars. [Link.](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30505)

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**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2007, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-on-mars/423486/4 "2007-10-22T03:26:35Z")

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[QUOTE=the raindog]  
Apparently, NASA found evidence of Dasani on Mars. [Link.](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30505)  
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It won’t be confirmed until they find an empty Dasani bottle in one of the craters.