List of evidence for water on Mars Options

[pumpkinpie]

Does there exist a list of all the evidence of water on Mars, listed by spacecraft?

Ideally, it would be a list with a short description and a link to a story or news release. For example:

Mars Global Surveyor: NASA Images Suggest Water Still Flows in Brief Spurts on Mars http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/new...s-20061206.html
Phoenix: NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/...x-20080731.html
Opportunity: NASA Mars Rover Finds Mineral Vein Deposited by Water http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20111207.html

I know I could spend some time and extend the list that I've started above, but if someone or some organization has already done it I'd hate to reinvent the wheel!

Thank you.

[pumpkinpie]

Thanks for the reply!

I think I should have been a little more specific in my post. Sometimes I forget that people can't read everything I think about when I am typing.

I work in a planetarium, so I do shows on Mars for the public and for schools. I would love to have just a highlights list--what scientists and/or NASA E/PO think are the (for example) 10, 20, 50 "best" discoveries of evidence of water on Mars. Every month it seems there is a new release saying "best evidence yet!" so that makes me think, ok, what was the last "best evidence yet!" and the one before, and the one before, etc.

I would use it a number of ways. For my own background information, so I am ready to answer the question from a student or general public "how do we know there is/was water there?" in 30 seconds or less. That applies for my student employees, too. They wouldn't have the same time to dedicate to learning about this topic as I do, so I would want to give them a simple list. It would also be great to include in handouts I give to teachers.

I may be asking a lot, with the only answer being "do it yourself and use your best judgement."

[JRehling]

There are a few different parts of the answer, broken down by ice/liquid/vapor, and past/present. And past includes many past eras.

Phoenix took a photo of the ice like a hockey rink in the polar subsurface, so that's about as direct evidence as you could ask for regarding the ice/present combination. That was no great surprise after Mars Odyssey showed the extent of subsurface ice by detecting where neutrons were absorbed by hydrogen (which is a component of virtually no other mineral than water ice).

Pointers to other key evidence are:

MGS and MRO: Orbital observation of gullies formed in the present.

MRO: Orbital detection of minerals that are likely formed only in water.

Opportunity: In situ detection of minerals and geomorphology that indicates standing (acidic) water.

This is far from exhaustive, but if you only have 30 seconds, you can only say so much.

[pumpkinpie]

Simple, but very helpful! Thanks!