Salty liquids may exist on the surface of Mars - but it's too cold for life

Mars is so cold and dry that if a liquid water droplet is placed on Mars, it would nearly instantaneously either freeze, boil, or evaporate away.  But salty water (or brine) would evaporate more slowly and could survive there, researchers believe.  Dr Edgard G. Rivera-Valentín of the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) said, “Life on Earth, even extreme life, has certain environmental limits that it can withstand.”  “We investigated the distribution and chemistry of stable liquids on Mars to understand whether these environments would be suitable to at least extreme life on Earth.” The team of researchers used laboratory measurements of Mars salts along with Martian climate information to predict where brines would form.  They found that brine formation from some salts can lead to liquid water over 40% of the Martian surface but only seasonally, during 2% of the Martian year.