Huge Underground Water Reservoir Found on Mars, Raising Hopes for Life: Check Out What New Research Says
Mars may harbor a significant amount of water beneath its surface, enough to form a global ocean, a new study suggests. The finding is based on seismic data collected by NASA’s InSight lander, which recorded more than 1,300 Martian quakes during its two-year mission.
Possible habitats
Research led by Vashan Wright of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, suggests that this water could be located 11.5 to 20 kilometers below the Martian crust. The research suggests that water seeped into the ground billions of years ago, when Mars had rivers, lakes and possibly oceans, the Associated Press reported.
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While the discovery doesn’t necessarily indicate life on Mars, Wright stressed that it does point to the potential for habitable environments on the planet. The team used computer models and data from the Mars InSight mission, including seismic wave velocities, to conclude that groundwater is the most likely explanation for their findings. The research was introduced in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Need to explore further
If conditions at InSight’s landing site on Elysium Planitia are similar to the rest of Mars, groundwater could fill a global ocean one to two kilometers deep. However, further exploration with drilling equipment is needed to confirm the presence of this water and search for signs of microbial life.
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Although the Mars InSight mission ends in 2022, data collected between 2018 and 2022 is still being analyzed to understand the interior of Mars. Scientists believe that Mars, which was once covered in oceans more than three billion years ago, lost its surface water as its atmosphere thinned, leaving the planet parched. Much of this ancient water may have escaped into space or existed in underground reservoirs.
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Previous studies have confirmed the presence of frozen water at the poles and evidence of water vapor in the atmosphere, but this is the first time liquid water has been detected on Mars.
