365NEWSX
365NEWSX
Subscribe

Welcome

Even More Evidence Points to 'Water Bodies' Under the Surface of Mars - Yahoo! Voices

Even More Evidence Points to 'Water Bodies' Under the Surface of Mars - Yahoo! Voices

Even More Evidence Points to 'Water Bodies' Under the Surface of Mars - Yahoo! Voices
Sep 30, 2020 1 min, 11 secs

Now, Orosei, a planetary scientist at Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics, and his fellow researchers say they have new, additional evidence that these deep, vast subglacial lakes really do exist.

Scientists believe Mars was covered in a vast network of liquid water seas roughly 4 billion years ago.

But some of that water is still on Mars's surface in the form of ice tucked along steep crater walls at the planet's poles.

Because the surface of Mars is so cold—and because atmospheric pressure is so low—liquid water can't exist on its surface.

The secret ingredient in keeping Martian water liquid below the surface, researchers believe, could be salt.

Because salt lowers the freezing temperature of water, it's more likely that any liquid water below the Red Planet's surface would have a nice brine to it.

“If the bright material really is liquid water, I think it’s more likely to represent some sort of slush or sludge,” planetary geophysicist Mike Sori, of Purdue University, told Nature.

The orbiter's MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) instrument, which keyed researchers in on the 2018 discovery, shoots radio waves at Mars's surface in order to find pockets of liquid amid deposits of harder materials like rock and ice.

China's Tiawen-1 mission, for example, has an orbiter equipped with radar instruments that could help pinpoint whether liquid water really is churning below Mars's surface.

Summarized by 365NEWSX ROBOTS

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED