The discovery of water seeping out of the steep slopes of Mars could be an indication of life on the red planet, a Kiwi astronomer says.
Research released yesterday confirmed the discovery of salt water in liquid form that flows down certain Martian slopes each summer.
Rotorua Astronomical Society president Ken Blackman said scientists had been looking for signs of water on Mars for a long time so it was an exciting discovery.
"I am no biologist but water is one of the essential ingredients for developing life as we know it so this new discovery could very well be a sign of microbial organisms on the planet.
"Even though this is somewhat of a breakthrough, we are still quite a way off from booking a one-way ticket to Mars," he laughed.
"There is still no vegetation on the largely barren land so it would take a lot of work and not to mention money, to make the planet hospitable for humans."
Stardome astronomer Grant Christie said research had been under way since Nasa first discovered dark stops on the Martian slopes about five years ago. While the liquid discovered on the surface of the slopes didn't quite constitute a babbling brook - it's more like seepage out of a cliff face - Dr Christie said it was a significant discovery.
"It's in limited locality, so it doesn't alter the fact that Mars is still a dry and inhospitable place to go and live," he said.
"It does confirm that you can have brief flows of liquid water on Mars.
"When you've got those conditions, it certainly raises the possibility that you could have living organisms.
"I think the next step with Mars would be to get there and eventually sample some water from some of these reservoirs below the surface that presumably exist and examine them directly."
However, due to the extreme steepness of the slopes water seepage has been discovered on - some with angles of 25 to 45 degrees - it's unlikely that any spacecraft would be able to land on the surface.
While Dr Christie doesn't believe the announcement was timed to coincide with this Friday's release of the Nasa-backed space flick The Martian, "you can't rule anything out with Nasa ".