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RELEASE: 07_14AR
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - Searching for clues to the potential for life
on Mars, NASA scientists recently explored microbial communities in
some of the world’s oldest, driest and most remote deserts, in
China’s northwest region, and found evidence suggesting that
conditions there may be similar to those in certain regions of Mars.
In December 2006, NASA published satellite images from the Mars Global
Surveyor mission that showed periodically changing gullies on the
surface of Mars. Although no one knows for sure how the martian
gullies were formed, some scientists hypothesize that they may be the
result of surfacing groundwater or melting of ice in the martian
subsurface.
This research was funded under the NASA Astrobiology Science and
Technology for Exploring Planets program and a joint NASA - National
Science Foundation program, called Life in Extreme Environments.
For more information about NASA on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home
Map of approximate area of sandy and gobi deserts (shamo) and sandy
lands (shadi) in China
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