Mars: huge underground lake raises prospects of life on planet, astronomers say

By Dilip -

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

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