"NASA will detail a major science finding from the agency’s ongoing exploration of Mars," it said in a statement by Monday early morning.

Later at noon, NASA scientists announced they have strong evidence that briny water flows on the planet, a critical step toward identifying possible life on Mars.

In an article published in Nature Geoscience thanks to data from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a team lead by Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology confirms that seasonal flows in mountainous regions of the planet correspond with the presence of briny water.

“The presence of liquid water on Mars today has astrobiological, geologic and hydrologic implications and may affect future human exploration.”

Researchers have known for many years that Mars has water frozen. However the formations on the Mars surface suggest water flowed on the plantes for a significant period of time. Time enough to could have sustained bacteria or other simple life forms. A discovery that may have ramifications in the search for past or present life on the planet.

“Mars is looking more and more—it’s a potential habitat, extant from Earth,” said the physicist John Mace Grunsfeld in a press conference Monday. “The resources are there.”