Why is everyone making a big deal about nasa's recent findings on Mars concerning water?

Well, it seems like their "new discovery" of possible liquid, ice cold perchlorate solution is something that they already knew about and announced over two years ago.

http://www.space.com/21554-mars-toxic-perchlorate-...

I think there is something to the premise that NASA is making use of the popularity of the movie The Martian to reannounce the news to people who previously weren't interested but now might be.

Well.... it's a little more than that. There's evidence of *flowing* water, on the surface. We've thought there was water ice, detected it, and finally discovered it on the surface, which is one thing... but the fact that this ice heats up & flows is a pretty big deal.

It implies two things - first, there's more water on Mars than we thought 20 years ago, and if there's flowing water, the chance that life on another planet exists increases.

And overall... it makes Mars more Earth-like - changing it from the impresssion we have of it - a bone dry, cold desert.

Yes most people have known for years that there is water on Mars. What was unknown until recently is that there appears to be liquid briny(salty) water flowing down the sides of a mountain on Mars. This was thought to be impossible on Mars with it`s current surface atmospheric pressure,of 0.636kpa/0.4-0.87psi which is to low for liquid water.,liquid water needs at least 1psi.The surface temps are around -143 degrees c(min),-60degrees c(mean) at max +30 degrees c.In these conditions liquid water should evaporate away or freeze.The water however is probably more like a sludge and very salty,this would slow the process of evaporation and freezing because of the sludge acting as a kind of anti-freeze.

This kind of discovery is worth "making a big deal", don`t you think?.

NASA has learned from all those charlatans of bygone years who see something vague or unexplained either in the sky or in old manuscripts, and then build a successful business out of claiming that what they saw must surely be boogiemen from space. The media was very useful in selling numerous books to generate a buoyant profit from those gullible enough to buy the story.

Yes, nasa has known about water on mars for many years in the form of ice. Those dark canals on the sides of craters have also been known since the MGS days. But now they see a chance to boost their funding by hooking up a sensationalist "major announcement" with the release of a sci-fi flick. You have to applaud them for their business sense.

Thanks largely to nasa, to the public, Hollywood is science, and science is Hollywood. For a struggling and somewhat outdated and underfunded space agency, this makes good business sense. Nasa and Hollywood work in synergy to increase the funding of both.

Cheers!

Because finding liquid water on Mars not only is great for the future Mars Colonization, but it can also mean that there is microscopic life on Mars! You can see more here https://thebeautyinspace.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/...

They discovered liquid saltwater. The salt will kill all microbes. But that's a spoiler so they speculate about Martians to get more funding

are you that dense? it means there could be life on mars... it's very exciting news. we are getting closer to finding new things. who knows what could be living on mars. we haven't explored the whole planet just yet

Life needs one basic element to survive; water. Hope that answered your question!

Not true. The polar ice caps were thought to be mostly CO2. You are the fool

because it means some poor soul is gonna have to go drink it all up :/