A recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesbased on data from NASA’s InSight mission, has revealed the existence of a vast pool of liquid water trapped deep within the Martian crustThe basin in question, according to the study, could have a quantity of water enough to cover the entire planet with an ocean up to 1.6 kilometers deep.
The team of scientists, led by Vashan Wright of the University of California, San Diego, used a seismometer aboard the InSight lander to study the interior of Mars between 2018 and 2022. The data collected allowed us to identify the presence of a significant amount of liquid water in the cracks and pores of the rocks, located at a depth of between 11.5 and 20 kilometers below the surface..
This discovery indicates that Mars may have once had very different conditions than it does today, and represents a major breakthrough in understanding the Martian water cycle and climate conditions that characterized the red planet billions of years ago. “Understanding the water cycle on Mars is fundamental to understanding the evolution of the climate, surface, and interior of the planet,” Wright said.
The astrobiological implications of this discovery are extraordinary. Michael Manga, co-author of the study and professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Berkeleysaid: “Water is necessary for life as we know it. I don’t see why this underground reservoir can’t be a habitable environment.. While we have yet to find direct evidence of life on Mars, the presence of liquid water so deep down could provide a habitat similar to those on Earth, such as deep mines or the ocean floor, where life thrives.”
However, accessing this water reserve appears to pose a considerable engineering challenge for future human missions.”Drilling even 1 kilometer or more into the Earth is a challenge that requires energy and infrastructure, so it would require bringing a huge amount of resources to Mars to reach those depths.“, Wright said.
“The idea that liquid water may exist deep beneath the Martian surface has been around for decades, but this is the first time that real-world data from a Mars mission has confirmed the idea.“ said Alberto Fairén, an interdisciplinary planetary scientist and astrobiologist in the department of astronomy at Cornell University. “On Earth, the subsurface biosphere is truly vast, containing most of the prokaryotic diversity and biomass of our planet. Some investigations even suggest that the origin of life on Earth occurred deep underground. Therefore, the astrobiological implications of finally confirming the existence of liquid water habitats kilometers below the surface of Mars are truly exciting.
“Just as on Earth, where groundwater is connected to the surface through rivers and lakes, this was certainly the case on early Mars as well,” Wright said. “The underground water we see is a testimony to that past.”
Photo credit NASA/JPL Caltech
#huge #body #water #surface #Mars #revelations #Nasa #InSight
