By Chas Newkey-Burden in The Week: the data from a NASA mission between 2018 and 2022 has found evidence of an underground reservoir of water. The space agency’s lander carried a seismometer, which “recorded four years’ of vibrations – Mars quakes – from deep inside the Red Planet”, said the BBC.
The team used the same techniques used to search for water on Earth, or to look for oil and gas. They were excited to make their discovery but “there’s a problem”, said Forbes.
This water is “deep”, explained Space – “very deep.” It is between 11.5km and 20km deep (7.1 and 12.4 miles) and there is no water at all in the crust above 5km deep (3.1 miles).
Why does this matter?
Despite their inconvenient depths, if the aquifers are there, they may “provide new insights into the dynamics of Mars’s desiccation”, said The Economist, and if Mars “ever was the abode of life”, they “may be the habitat of its last survivors”.
We “haven’t found any evidence for life on Mars”, said professor of planetary science Michael Manga of the University of California, Berkeley, but “at least we have identified a place that should, in principle, be able to sustain life”.
Have you ever wanted to live on Mars? This latest discovery might bring the possibility closer. Exploring on The Conversation “what it would take” to transform Mars’ “barren landscape” into “a life-friendly world”, Sven Bilén explained that humans would need “liquid water, food, shelter and an atmosphere with enough oxygen to breathe and thick enough to retain heat and protect against radiation from the Sun”.
