[Mars-discuss] Present-day liquid water on Mars

[Thomas Coffee]

I've seen several studies demonstrating survival of spores under 
simulated Martian temperature-pressure environments ... has anyone 
actually demonstrated growth and/or reproduction of microorganisms under 
the marginal liquid-water conditions you discuss in the paper?

- Thomas


>>  Thomas Coffee <tcoffee at MIT.EDU>
>>
>> ... and some other remarkable recent finds by the MGS imaging team:
>>
>> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/mgs/mgs20061206/
> 
> For what it's worth, I'd proposed that water flow like this is  
> probablly made possible by the fact that the water is likely to be  
> extremely saline, and hence have a very low freezing temperature:
> Mars Water: Are There Extant Halobacteria on Mars?" (pdf file),  
> published in Astrobiology Vol. 1., No. 2, pp. 161-164 (2001).
> http://powerweb.grc.nasa.gov/pvsee/publications/mars/Halobacteria.pdf
>