Are we closer to finding life on Mars? They discovered a huge amount of water at great depths

The surface of Mars has Unmistakable signs of excess water Which flow into rivers, which form deltas, and which end in oceans. But where was the water? Did it evaporate when its atmosphere gave up? The only thing visible today is permafrost at the planet’s poles.

Science has been searching for answers to these questions for centuries. But new studies have been conducted using data provided by Robot from a pot who worked on mars, You can begin to give clear answers to these questions.

Although he thinks so Part of the water was lost in space. As the planet’s atmosphere collapses, research suggests that this isn’t the whole story. Water may contain minerals, Buried as ice or even in liquid form deep within the planet’s crust.

Now scientists from University of California, San Diego They say their calculations suggest that large amounts of liquid water could be found trapped inside rocks 11 to 20 kilometers below the surface of Mars.

“Our estimates of liquid water are larger than the amounts of water that are thought to have filled the ancient Martian oceans. Understanding the water cycle on Mars is essential to understanding the evolution of climate, both on the surface and inland. “A useful starting point is to determine where and how much water is present,” said Dr. Fashion Right, The study was co-authored by researchers from the university’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Published In the magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Wright and colleagues He made calculations based on Mars gravity data and measurements recorded by the lander. vision From NASA. The latter reveals how the speed of seismic waves (generated by Martian earthquakes and meteorite impacts) changes with depth within the Red Planet’s crust.

“The middle crust, which is fractured and filled with liquid water, better explains the seismic and gravity data we’ve captured,” Wright said.

And so using NASA’s robot probe explores Mars’ interior with seismic activityGeophysicists have found evidence of this. Large reserve of liquid water underground, Enough to fill the oceans on the planet’s surface. The data analyzed allows scientists to estimate that the amount of groundwater present could cover the entire planet at a depth of between 1 and 2 kilometers.

“On Earth, groundwater seeps from the surface, and we think this process happened on Mars. “The intrusion must have occurred at a time when the upper crust was warmer than it is today,” the geologist said, announcing that although the results They do not exclude It is likely that the water also has lost in space or left Besieged In Minerals, “This work has allowed scientists to re-evaluate the relative contributions of these different mechanisms to past surface water loss on Mars.”

Wright with his colleagues Michael Manga of the University of California, Berkeley, and Matthias Morsfeld of Scripps Oceanography They used a mathematical model of rock physics, similar to those used on Earth to map aquifers and oil fields. They concluded that the best explanation for InSight’s seismic data was a deep layer of fractured igneous rock saturated with liquid water. Igneous rock is hot, cooling magma, such as the granite of the Sierra Nevada in the United States.

“Proving the existence of a large reservoir of liquid water gives us an idea of ​​what the climate was or could have been like. Water is essential to life as we know it. I don’t understand why an underground warehouse can’t be a habitable environment.“It’s a very interesting story,” said Manga, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.

“It is true that this is true on Earth, where very deep mines harbor life, and the ocean floor harbors life. We have not found any evidence of life on Mars, but at least we have identified a place where, in principle, it exists. Must be able to support life.Manga, who was Wright’s postdoctoral advisor, added.

Manga pointed out that there is a lot of evidence of the presence of water on Mars, such as river channels, deltas, and lake sediments, which supports the hypothesis that there was water on the surface of the planet one day, but That wet period ended more than 3 billion years ago, after Mars lost its atmosphere..

“The presence of water does not mean there is life, but water is thought to be an important ingredient for life. We know that life can exist deep within the Earth, where there is water. The middle crust of Mars contains at least one key ingredient for habitability and life as we know it,” Wright said.

Bethany Elman, Professor of Planetary Science at Keck Institute for Space Studies“A definitive measurement is now needed to show whether there is liquid water deep on Mars, and if so, exactly where,” he said, who was not involved in the work.On Earth, where there is liquid water, there is life, so if there are now liquid underground water layers on Mars, it is a prime target in the search for life.He added.

The doctor John Wadethe follower University of OxfordHe said he would not be surprised if there was life on Mars. “Early in its history, Mars was as hospitable to simple life as Earth, if not more so,” he said. Stephen Banham The follower Imperial College LondonIdentifying liquid water in the middle crust would also help geophysicists and geologists understand Mars’ internal structure and how it behaves, he added.

but, Banham raised doubts that water could provide a resource for manned missions to Mars. “The amount of water in the Earth’s crust is likely to be enormous, but it will be difficult to access or use,” the expert said. “It may not make much difference to human exploration, at least initially.”

NASA sent the InSight lander to Mars in 2018 to investigate the Red Planet’s crust, mantle, core and atmosphere. The robot recorded invaluable information. around the interior of Mars before the mission ends in 2022.

By analyzing all the seismic data collected by InSight, they were able to determine the thickness of the crust, the depth of the core, the composition of the core, and even a little bit about the temperature inside the mantle. InSight detected magnitude 5 earthquakes on Mars and meteorite impacts, all of which were caused by Seismic waves Which allowed geophysicists to explore its interior and learn more about the heart of our cosmic neighbor.