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A network of salty ponds may be gurgling below the South Pole of Mars alongside a large underground lake, raising the prospect of small Martian life swimming.
Italian scientists reported their findings on Monday, two years after identifying what they believed to be a large buried lake. They expanded their coverage area by a couple hundred miles, using even more data from a radar probe on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter.
In the latest study to appear in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists provide further evidence for this salty underground lake, estimated to be 12 miles to 18 miles (20 kilometers to 30 kilometers) wide and buried 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) below. from the frozen surface. .
Even more tempting, they also identified three smaller bodies of water that surround the lake. These ponds appear to be of various sizes and are separated from the main lake.
About 4 billion years ago, Mars was warm and humid, like Earth. But the red planet eventually morphed into the arid, dry world that it remains today.
The research team led by Sebastian Emanuel Lauro of the Roma Tre University used a method similar to that used on Earth to detect buried lakes in Antarctica and the Canadian Arctic. They based their findings on more than 100 radar observations made by Mars Express from 2010 to 2019; the spacecraft launched in 2003.
All of this potential water increases the possibility of microbial life on or within Mars. High concentrations of salt are likely to prevent the water from freezing in this frozen place, the scientists noted. The surface temperature at the South Pole is estimated to be minus 172 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 113 degrees Celsius) and gradually warms with depth.
These bodies of water are potentially interesting from a biological point of view and “future missions to Mars should target this region,” the researchers wrote.
