NASA to announce major Mars discovery

(CNN) -- Two red planet scientists who found evidence of recent water flows on Mars will soon present "their most significant discovery yet," NASA said Friday.

Michael Malin and Ken Edgett will announce their finding at NASA headquarters on December 7. A space agency spokesperson declined to give details.

Malin and Edgett are conducting an extensive study of high-resolution pictures of Mars, taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor satellite over the past several years.

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The two planetary geologists shocked space scientists in June when they unveiled dramatic photos of steeply eroded gullies and crater walls on Mars, which they said strongly suggested that water flowed near the surface of Mars in its recent geologic past.

NASA offered only scant details about Thursday's meeting, but top agency scientists and managers will be in attendance, including Ken Nealson, director of the Center for Life Detection at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Operated by Malin Space Science Systems, the camera aboard the Mars Global Surveyor has taken more than 50,000 pictures of the red planet. Surveyor has orbiting Mars since September 1997.

Malin and Edgett's new findings will be published in the December 8 issue of Science Magazine.

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NASA
Mars Global Surveyor
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Malin Space Science Systems
Science Magazine

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