One of my earliest memories is sitting on my grandfather's shoulders, waving a flag as our astronauts returned to Hawaii. This was years before we'd set foot on the moon. Decades before we'd land a rover on Mars. A generation before photos from the International Space Station would show up in our social media feeds.

A NASA spacecraft circling Mars has found evidence of flowing water on the Red Planet’s surface – and in our time, not in some dim and more verdant past.

Humans may like to think Earth has the solar system’s monopoly on water, but a new study reveals that Earth’s close neighbor boasts multiple seeps of salt-laden water that were wet, or at least damp, as recently as last year.

Four people wearing space helmets and square backpacks emerge from a circular structure resembling a water tank and step onto a reddish, barren landscape.

One hikes up a hill to take magnetic readings of the ground with a rectangular apparatus that looks like a large leveling tool. Another pushes a wheelbarrow equipped with sensors arrayed in a zig-zag pattern.

Scientists just found the best evidence yet that liquid water is currently present on Mars.

Using data collected by the Curiosity rover, they determined that tiny amounts of water vapor condense as a liquid in the planet's soil at night and evaporate away in the morning.

The research, published today in Nature Geoscience, shows that high amounts of salt in the soil lower the melting point of water, allowing it to temporarily pool as a liquid despite the subzero temperatures.