Could it be that there was never water on Mars?

Question

Take a look at the latest images from the Dawn mission at the asteroid Vesta:
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageoftheday/image.asp?date=20111213

Look carefully into the Oppia crater. Notice the flow channels starting high in the crater then broadening out towards the base. Notice how they look identical to the same flow channels that we are shown in images from Mars.

The same channels on Mars are the primary evidence that Mars had/has running water. Yet these channels on Vesta could not possibly have been made by water. They are caused by dust and debris falling downhill.

Could it be that Mars is dry now and always was? Is "water on Mars" just another variant of the "canals on Mars" fiasco from over a century ago?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

i have always woundered  if  what we see as flow channels was in fact created by magma , like hot rivers of Lava.  instead of water . im not to smart about such things . but why restrict are thinking that it had to of been water

isenberg · Answer

If mars had liquid co2 the clay would be a different colour because of the fact its an identical colour as earth clay and earth has liquid water. Plus co2 absorbs warmth so it would be extra like Venus than the present mars like state

campbelp2002 · Answer

Water (in the form of ice) has been detected with spectroscopic and direct chemical tests (by landers) on Mars already. But I suppose you mean only liquid water, not ice. But minerals have been detected with spectroscopic and direct chemical tests (by landers) that are known to form only in the presence of liquid water. That is an indirect but pretty convincing argument that liquid water once existed on Mars.

GeoffG · Answer

There are MANY different independent lines of evidence that there was, and probably still is water on Mars. The evidence is overwhelming.

Anthony Dewar · Answer

Do you know what water channels look like? There are none in those pictures.

Could it be that there was never water on Mars?

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