[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] AI in action:

[Ted Kochanski]

All,

The following appeared today in LiveScience
https://www.livescience.com/space/mars/long-dark-streaks-spotted-on-mars-arent-what-scientists-thought
Long, dark 'streaks' spotted on Mars aren't what scientists thought
Deals <https://www.livescience.com/deals>
By Ben Turner <https://www.livescience.com/author/ben-turner>
published yesterday

A set of dark streaks that regularly wind across the Martian surface are
more likely to be formed by dust and wind than by water, a new artificial
intelligence analysis has revealed...

But an AI algorithm trained on slope streak observations has revealed a
different origin for the streaks — likely being formed from wind and dust,
not water. The findings, published May 19 in the journal *Nature
Communications*
<https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=92X1588396&xcust=space_us_9990523073499600839&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41467-025-59395-w&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.livescience.com%2Fspace%2Fmars%2Flong-dark-streaks-spotted-on-mars-arent-what-scientists-thought>,
could have important implications for where humans choose to explore Mars,
and the places they search for evidence of possible ancient life...
To investigate this, the scientists behind the study trained a machine
learning algorithm on confirmed streak sightings before making it scan
through 86,000 satellite images to create a map of 500,000 streak features.

"Once we had this global map, we could compare it to databases and catalogs
of other things like temperature, wind speed, hydration, rock slide
activity and other factors." Bickel said. "Then we could look for
correlations over hundreds of thousands of cases to better understand the
conditions under which these features form."

Using the map, the scientists found the streaks were most likely to form in
places where wind speed and dust deposition was high, suggesting that they
came from layers of fine dust sliding off steep slopes.

AI doing what it does best --- file clerking
by the way the actual Nature Communications article is open access
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59395-w

I've downloaded it -- but only read the Abstract so far


   - Article
   - Open access
   <https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/about/the-fundamentals-of-open-access-and-open-research>
   - Published: 19 May 2025

Streaks on martian slopes are dry

   - Valentin Tertius Bickel
   <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59395-w#auth-Valentin_Tertius-Bickel-Aff1>
    &
   - Adomas Valantinas
   <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59395-w#auth-Adomas-Valantinas-Aff2>


*Nature Communications* <https://www.nature.com/ncomms> volume 16,
Article number: 4315 (2025) Cite this article
<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59395-w#citeas>

   -

   8210 Accesses
   -

   937 Altmetric
   -

   Metricsdetails
   <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59395-w/metrics>

Abstract

Slope streaks are dark albedo features on martian slopes that form
spontaneously and fade over years to decades. Along with seasonally
recurring slope lineae, streak formation has been attributed to aqueous
processes, implying the presence of transient yet substantial amounts of
liquid water or brines on Mars’ surface, with important implications for
present-day Mars’ habitability. Here, we use a deep learning-enabled
approach to create the first consistent, global catalog of half a million
individual slope streaks. We show that slope streaks modify less than 0.1%
of the martian surface, but transport several global storm equivalents of
dust per Mars year, potentially playing a major role in the martian dust
cycle. Our global geostatistical analysis challenges wet streak formation
models and instead supports dry streak formation, driven by seasonal dust
delivery and energetic triggers like wind and meteoritic impacts. We
further identify a qualitative, spatiotemporal relation between recurring
slope lineae formation, seasonal dust deposition, and dust devil activity.
Our findings suggest that modern Mars’ slopes do not commonly experience
transient flows of water or brines, implying that streak bearing terrain
can be explored without raising planetary protection concerns.

Ted
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