Study reveals the possibility of water under the surface of Mars

Cape Canaveral — According to New Search, Mars It can be submerged beneath its surface, with enough water Hidden in underground rock crevices.

The findings released Monday are based on seismic measurements from NASA’s Mars InSight spacecraft, which detected more than 1,300 quakes on Mars before it was shut down two years ago.

This water is believed to lie 7 to 12 miles (11.5 to 20 kilometers) below the Martian crust, and likely seeped from the surface billions of years ago, when Mars was home to rivers, lakes, streams and possibly oceans, says lead scientist Vashan Wright of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Just because Mars has water doesn’t mean it has life, Wright said.

“Instead, our findings mean that there are environments that could be habitable,” he said in an email.

His team combined computer models with InSight readings, including the speed of earthquakes, to determine that groundwater was the most likely explanation. The results were published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

If InSight’s location on Elysium Planitia near Mars’ equator is representative of the rest of the Red Planet, Wright said, the groundwater would be enough to fill a planetary ocean one to two kilometers (a mile or more) deep.

Other drills and equipment will be needed to confirm the presence of water and look for possible signs of microbial life.

Although the InSight lander is no longer operational, scientists continue to analyze data collected from 2018 to 2022, looking for more information about the interior of Mars.

Mars, which was almost entirely wet more than 3 billion years ago, is thought to have lost its surface water as its atmosphere thinned, becoming the driest, dustiest planet we know today. Scientists think much of this ancient water escaped into space or was buried.

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fountain: AFP