US space agency Nasa is to hold a 'major' press conference on Monday when it is expected to reveal a significant scientific breakthrough.
Speculation is mounting scientsits may reveal they have found liquid water on the planet. If this is the case it is bound to lead to growing optimism about life eventually being discovered.
The agency will gather experts at its HQC in Washington for a briefing where it promises to announce it has solved a 'huge mystery' surrounding the Red Planet.
Experts at this event include Jim Green, the director of planetary science at Nasa and Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program.
One theory is they will announce microbial life on the planet but a more likely scenario is evidence of flowing water.
Those hopes have been given a boost by the attendance of scientist Lujendra Ojha, of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, at the Nasa announcement.
He first came up with the theory that Mars has liquid salt water flowing through it during warmer months.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article