Data from a retired NASA mission has revealed evidence of an underground reservoir of water deep beneath the surface of Mars, according to new research.
A team of scientists estimates that there may be enough water, trapped in tiny cracks and pores of rock in the middle of the Martian crust, to fill oceans on the planet’s surface.
The groundwater would likely cover the entirety of Mars to a depth of 1 mile (1.6 kilometers), the study found.
Scientists examining data from NASA’s InSight Lander have revealed the likely presence of an underground reservoir containing enough liquid to cover the planet with a mile of water.
The massive underground reservoir, discovered using seismic data taken by NASA’s InSight Lander contains enough liquid to cover the entire planet with a mile of water. However, it is far too deep to access by any known means.
Trapped inside a layer of fractured rock 7 to 13 miles (11.5 to 20 kilometers) beneath the Red Planet’s outer crust, reaching the water would require a drilling operation that has yet to be Achieved on Earth.
The search for ‘lost’ water on Mars
Mars was likely a warmer, wetter place billions of years ago, based on the evidence of ancient lakes, river channels, deltas and rocks altered by water studied by other NASA missions and observed by orbiters. But the red planet lost its atmosphere more than 3 billion years ago, which effectively ended the wet period on Mars.
Scientists still aren’t sure why Mars lost its atmosphere, and a multitude of missions have been developed to learn about the history of the planet’s water, where it went, and whether water ever created habitable conditions for life on Mars. While water remains trapped as ice at the planet’s polar ice caps, researchers don’t believe that can account for all the planet’s “lost” water.
Existing theories offer a few likely scenarios for what happened to Martian water after Mars lost its atmosphere: Some hypothesize it became ice or was lost to space, while others suggest it was incorporated into minerals beneath the planet’s surface or trickled into deep aquifers.
The new findings suggest that water on Mars filtered down into the Martian crust.
While the analysis of the data can’t reveal any information about life, past or present, if it existed on Mars, it’s possible that wet Martian crust could be habitable in the same way that deep groundwater on Earth is hospitable for microbial life, he said.
But even drilling holes just half a mile (1 kilometer) or deeper on Earth is a challenge that requires energy and infrastructure, so a massive number of resources would need to be brought to Mars to drill to such depths, Wright said.
The team was surprised not to find evidence suggesting a layer of frozen groundwater beneath Insight because that portion of the crust is cold. The researchers are still trying to determine why there isn’t frozen groundwater at shallower depths above the mid-crust. (CNN)
