Since 2010, scientists have been trying to figure out why dark lines appear and disappear seasonally on the surface of Mars. The lines would appear and vanish in the same places during the warmer seasons, near the planet’s equator. This phenomenon is known as slope lineae. NASA has just confirmed that saltwater found in perchlorates’ crystal structure is what causes this to happen. This is very controversial because it raises the intriguing questions of whether or not life could exist on Mars. However, scientists don’t know where this water is coming from or if it has the correct composition to support life. One possibility is the water could have formed by a melting subsurface ice, caused by the warming of the planet. Despite this discovery,
