02/14/2014

Scientists Hunt for Morning Dew on Mars

12:04 minutes

In 2011, planetary scientist James Wray and his colleagues reported finding dark streaks on steep Martian slopes. The streaks appeared in warm seasons, and vanished during cold weather—evidence, they suggested, of liquid water flows. They still haven’t confirmed the presence of water. But now they’ve found evidence that fine-grained iron sediments seem to be carried away by some sort of flow—possibly, Wray says, the trickling of morning dew.

 

Segment Guests

James Wray

James Wray is an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.

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About Christopher Intagliata

Christopher Intagliata was Science Friday’s senior producer. He once served as a prop in an optical illusion and speaks passable Ira Flatowese.

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