[ad_1]
Researchers have found evidence of large amounts of liquid water beneath the surface of Mars, enough to fill an ocean on the planet’s surface.
Using data from NASA’s InSight lander, scientists estimate that the amount of groundwater on Mars could cover the entire planet to a depth of one to two kilometers.
But experts say it’s unlikely to be of much use to anyone trying to use the reservoir to resupply a future Martian colony.
It is located in tiny cracks and pores in the rocks in the middle of the Martian crust, between 11.5 and 20 kilometers below the surface. Even on Earth, drilling a hole a kilometer deep is a challenge.
“Understanding the water cycle on Mars is critical to understanding the evolution of the climate, surface and interior,” said Vashan Wright, formerly a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley and now an assistant professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
“A helpful starting point is to determine where the water is and how much of it there is.”
Earth scientists have sent numerous probes and landers to Mars to find out what happened to the planet’s water about 3 billion years ago, when and if life exists or once existed on the planet.
Experts believe the discovery suggests that large amounts of water did not escape into space but seeped into the Earth’s crust.
The researchers used data collected by InSight during its four-year mission, which ends in 2022.
The lander collects information from the ground directly beneath it, including the speed of Martian seismic waves.
Using models based on mathematical theories of rock physics, the researchers determined that the presence of liquid water in the Earth’s crust best explained the data.
“While existing data are best interpreted in terms of a water-saturated mid-crust, our results highlight the value of geophysical measurements and better constraints on the mineralogy and composition of the Martian crust,” the authors wrote.
The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. — PA Media/dpa
[ad_2]
Source link
