Mars: huge underground lake raises prospects of life on planet, astronomers say
Astronomers have found
compelling evidence that there is a huge reservoir of liquid water buried a
mile under the ice near the south pole on Mars. Radar measurements
taken from the European
Space Agency’s
Mars Express orbiter spotted the 12 mile-wide stretch of water at the base of a
thick slab of polar ice in a region known as Planum Australe.
It is the first time
that researchers have identified a stable body of liquid water on the red
planet. The finding raises the likelihood that any microbial life that arose on
Mars may continue to eke out a rather bleak existence deep beneath the surface. “We discovered water on Mars,” said Roberto
Orosei at the National Institute of Astrophysics in Bologna. Any other
explanation for the bright reflections the scientists saw in their radar
observations was “untenable”, he added. Details of the finding are reported in
the journal, Science.
Today, the most
obvious signs that Mars was once a wet world are the ancient waterways that
sculpted the planet’s surface many millions of years ago. In 2015, Nasa
announced that it had spotted
water seeping down slopes and gullies on the planet, but that
interpretation was cast into doubt last year when US Geological Survey
researchers argued that the mysterious dark streaks were no more than tumbling
grains.. read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/25/huge-underground-lake-discovered-on-mars-say-astronomers