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Researchers have found an ‘underground lake’ of liquid water on Mars for the first time. While previous research unearthed possible signs of ‘intermittent liquid water flowing’ on Mars’ surface, a new discovery has now braced the possibility of ‘extra-terrestrial life.’
According to DailyMail report, the reservoir which spans 20km and is buried a mile (1.6km) underground, was discovered by scientists using radar to ‘probe’ the Red Planet’s south polar ice cap. Despite the lake’s freezing temperature (-68 degree Celsius), scientists believe the water is kept in liquid form as a ‘salty brine (termed as sludge),’ as per the report. Apparently, the discovery was made using Marsis (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding), a radar instrument that is used by scientist to study beneath a planet’s surface.
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Carbon compounds and minerals have already been found on the Martian surface. However, the latest discovery likely provides the ‘first evidence of life’ outside the planet Earth. The presence of the underground lake was discovered by scientists at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), in Rome, DailyMail cited.
“It’s probably not a very large lake,” Prof Roberto Orosei (via BBCNews) from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, who led the study said. “This really qualifies this as a body of water. A lake, not some kind of meltwater filling some space between rock and ice, as happens in certain glaciers on Earth,” Prof Orosei added.
Notably, researchers used the Marsis instrument to examine the surface and subsurface of the planet. The device sends radar signals that pierce the ice at the planet’s surface, and measures how the ‘radio waves’ spread and reflect back ‘to the probe.’
