They discover a salt water lake on Mars – 25/07/2018

Italian researchers made an announcement Wednesday that can mean a real revolution in the search for life on other planets: the discovery of liquid water in addition to salt , on Mars.

reports, relate to an underground lake under a layer of ice found thanks to the results of the radar installed in the Mars Express probe of the European Space Agency (AEA).

The discovery, signed by a team of Italian researchers, concludes that in an area called Plamun Australe, located in the ice layer of the south pole of Mars, the profile traced by the radar is very similar to that of the large lakes of Liquid water found under Antarctica and Greenland on Earth

The research, published in the journal Science was presented at the headquarters of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and was qualified by its president, Roberto Battiston, of " the most important of recent years . "

To come to these conclusions, the Italian team of researchers has obtained 29 sets of radar samples, with which an area has been mapped that showed a very pronounced change to 1.5 kilometers under the surface of the ice and stretched about 20 kilometers.

Roberto Orosei, first researcher of this study and responsible for the MARSIS radar installed in the Mars Express probe, explains that "it was captured as echoes. This area was stronger than the surface echoes and [19459004thiscircumstanceoccursonlywhensub-glacialwaterisobservedasinAntarctica. "

Orosei explained in statements to the agency EFE that It took several years to to arrive at these conclusions and for that reason any other possible explanation has been eliminated until the evidence is reached that it was water.

But also, the study badures that is about water salad a, since that is what would allow that with the pressure of the ice cap , the underground lake remains liquid despite a temperature between minus 1 and 21 degrees, as in the case of the Earth.

To this end, he gave himself as an example of Lake Vostok, the largest of nearly 400 subglacial lakes known from Antarctica, and whose water is liquid antiene in because of the weight exerted by the heavy ice layer.

Scientists do not rule out the fact that there is no way in the world. one can also think of the possibility of finding a "biological deposit " since it is proved that certain bacteria can survive at low temperature and especially thanks to the saline substances. However, adds Orosei, it will be difficult to find evidence and it will take many years because it will be necessary to drill.