Evidence of a lake beneath the surface of Mars has been detected by radar. Beneath the southern polar ice cap of Mars, according to a new study by Italian researchers from the Italian Space Agency, is evidence of a lake.
Conspiracy Fact and Theory
Evidence Of Subsurface Lake On Mars Discovered
Evidence of a lake beneath the surface of Mars has been detected by radar. Beneath the southern polar ice cap of Mars, according to a new study by Italian researchers from the Italian Space Agency, is evidence of a lake.
The new study was published Wednesday in the journal Science. Evidence was gathered by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument, also known as MARSIS, on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft. According to CNN, between May 2012 and December 2015, MARSIS was used to survey the Planum Australe region, which is in the southern ice cap of Mars. It sent radar pulses through the surface and polar ice caps and measured how the radio waves reflected back to Mars Express.
What was discovered is truly remarkable. The radio waves reflected 29 sets of radar samples that created a map of drastic change in signal almost a mile below the surface. It stretched about 12.5 miles across and looked very similar to lakes that are found beneath Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets on Earth. The radar reflected the feature’s brightness, signaling that it’s water. “We interpret this feature as a stable body of liquid water on Mars,” the authors wrote in the study.
Due to the lake’s location (underneath the Martian polar ice cap) it is theorized that the lake is below the freezing point, meaning the water is solid, not liquid.
“This is just one small study area; it is an exciting prospect to think there could be more of these underground pockets of water elsewhere, yet to be discovered,” said Roberto Orosei in a statement. Orosei is the lead study author and principal investigator of the MARSIS experiment.
This is not the first time scientists have thought there could be water on the Martian surface. Previously, there were suggestions of droplets of water condensing on the Phoenix lander or as the possible cause of recurring slope lineae, which are seasonal dark streaks on Martian slopes. But there hasn’t been evidence of stable bodies of water until now, the researchers said.
The presence of liquid water at the base of Martian polar caps was first hypothesized in a study 31 years ago.
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