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Finding liquid water on Mars is one of the big goals of the Red Planet's exploration missions. The probes have not yet been collected, but the badysis of the data recorded by a radar for nearly three years has made it possible to discover what could be a lake 20 kilometers long and 1.5 kilometers long. deep with liquid water. The results were published in the journal Science
If you already prepare the swimsuit to swim, it is best to have the idea: the water is cold and looks more like a brine than at a clear water lake. we would wait. At this place, the temperatures are most likely below zero, the freezing point of pure water, but in this case, the water will not be frozen. Researchers believe that in this place, as in others on Mars, there are dissolved minerals, such as magnesium, calcium or sodium. These dissolved minerals, as well as the pressure exerted by the ice layer over the lake, make the solidification temperature much lower (about 68 ° C negative) and the lake remains in the liquid state –
This is an impressive result that suggests that water on Mars is not just temporary as previous discoveries have suggested, but that she has a plan to do it. Standing water that provides conditions for the existence of life for long periods. time, "said Alan Duffy, astronomer at the University of Swinburne (Australia), in a commentary on the results." This groundwater can exist as a lake trapped under layers of rock or mixed with the Martian soil for create salty mud, but in any case 20 kilometers long, that's a lot. "
" This is a discovery, "says Fred Watson, a researcher at the Australian Astronomical Observatory, Ministry of Health. 39, Industry, Innovation and Science. But the investigator recommends caution because "the concentration of salts needed to maintain water in the liquid state would be fatal to any form of microbial life on Earth."
Data was collected between May 2012 and December 2015 by a Mars Express platform: Mars' advanced radar for the underground and ionospheric sounding radar aimed at finding precision water under the surface. The 29 radar recordings showed that there was something different under the Planum Austral region, located on the ice cap (or mbad) of ice in the south of the planet. The profile found is similar to that of the liquid water lakes found by the low ice caps in Antarctica and Greenland, suggesting that Mars has a lake of the same type.
The polar ice caps on Mars are very similar to those of the sea. Earth, scientists have been searching for more than 30 years to find water beneath the ice sheets in these regions, says Fred Watson. "Now, for the first time, we have convincing evidence that there is water in the liquid state under the caps in the south of Mars," says the investigator who did not participate in the work. "This place is nothing special," adds Alan Duffy, who did not participate in this study. The researcher explains that the MARSIS radar is more sensitive in this region, but that there are probably similar water deposits all over the planet.
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