News coverage of potential present day habitats of life on Mars

This is a page of snippets from some of the major discoveries regarding present day Mars habitability that have hit the news.

2009 - BBC News "Researchers previously thought water existed largely as ice or as vapour on Mars, because of the low temperatures and atmospheric pressure. But Nasa's Phoenix lander has shown the presence in Martian soil of perchlorate salts, which can keep water liquid at temperatures of minus 70C. Pockets of brine might form when soil interacted with ice."
 * March 24 Briny pools 'may exist on Mars'

2018


 * July 25 Liquid water 'lake' revealed on Mars - BBC News

"What they believe to be a lake sits under the planet's south polar ice cap, and is about 20km (12 miles) across. Previous research found possible signs of intermittent liquid water flowing on the martian surface, but this is the first sign of a persistent body of water on the planet in the present day.... The result is exciting because scientists have long searched for signs of present-day liquid water on Mars, but these have come up empty or yielded ambiguous findings. It will also interest those studying the possibilities for life beyond Earth - though it does not yet raise the stakes in the search for biology."

Massive lake of water found beneath Mars’ south pole could host life - New Scientist "Jeffery Plaut at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California, Pasadena, cautions that the find seems promising, but will need to be confirmed with further study. The radar images could also be explained by particular arrangements of carbon dioxide ice or very pure water ice, he says. “If the result is confirmed, it would be the largest known occurrence of present-day liquid water on Mars,” says Plaut. “It clearly has implications for the history of climate and the possibility of habitats suitable for life.”"