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Presence Of Liquid Water On Mars Confirmed
A picture of the Red Planet released by NASA. The southern polar ice cap is visible in the picture. (NASA/Getty Images)
Researchers have found evidence of the presence of a giant lake of liquid water buried beneath Mars’ icy south pole according to an article in Science.
Although hypothesised since long, this is the first time evidence of a stable body of water has been found on the Red Planet. Earlier, NASA’s Curiosity had shown that water was present on the surface of Mars in the past.
An Italian team detected the signs of a 20-kilometre-wide lake, 1.5 kilometres under the ice cap. The researchers made the discovery using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument, which is a low frequency radar attached to Mars Express Spacecraft.
Given its location beneath the polar ice cap, the water is expected to be below the freezing point. However, experts have not been able to confirm these findings.
Presence of liquid water on Mars had been a topic of research for over 30 years. Scientists believed that Radio Echo Sounding (RES) is a suitable way to proceed further on the hypothesis, a highly contested view since the last three decades. The present findings are very significant in this context as MARSIS has used the RES technique. The discovery holds vital implications in the search for life on the Red planet.
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