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Italian researchers discovered, with the aid of a ground penetrating radar (GPR), an underground lake on Mars, the first discovery of this type and solution to a mystery of three decades on the possibility of liquid water existence at the poles of the planet.
Astronomers badyzed radar data from an Italian-American instrument aboard the Mars Express, probe from the European Space Agency June turned 15 years into the Martian orbit. The data revealed a layer of liquid 12 miles (about 19 kilometers) wide near the south pole of the planet, about a mile below the surface of Mars.
The radar showed an area of reflective brightness of the water and, in practical terms, nothing more. Its thickness could not be determined with the radar.
If life exists on Mars, "this is certainly not a very pleasant environment," said in a video principal author Roberto Orosei of the National Institute of Astrophysics . ] The research takes advantage of a simple fact about the solar system. Planets are just planets, and what happens in a planet can also happen in other places. Scientists have used radars to identify lakes under Antarctic glaciers.
The forces that allow water to accumulate under the Antarctic ice explain how the same phenomenon can occur on Mars, according to the article. published Wednesday in the journal Science. Huge pressures, such as those that exist under the Antarctic or a mile under Mars, can reduce the freezing point of water. In addition, Martian soil is full of sodium salts, calcium and magnesium, a mixture that would further reduce the freezing temperature of water, perhaps up to -60 degrees Celsius (-76 degrees Fahrenheit).
None of these results is technically conclusive until a probe pierces the soil and rock of Mars and actually extracts a sample. And while this would require "technological developments that are not available at the moment," said Orosei, the researchers have great confidence in their results. The southern Planum, the area of Mars studied, recorded a very strong light, at levels identical to those of Antarctica and Greenland.
On Earth, a georeferenced radar is used to identify groundwater, tunnels, unexploded bombs, ancient structures built by humans and more. The principle is the same on Mars. The satellite transmits radar signals to the surface. The speed and strength with which the signals bounce in each stratum allows the team to try to reconstruct the separation and composition of the layers beneath the surface. The target area, which is located in the southern polar cap of the planet, has been examined in 29 aerial views over a period of three years.
Finding a water plan on another planet is new in itself and is part of a larger investigation NASA has long used a water monitoring strategy in its search for life extraterrestrial.
"The concept of life we use should also identify the environmental conditions most conducive to life," wrote the authors of the current plan. 10 years of the US Space Agency for the exploration of the solar system. "A habitable environment must contain liquid water at least intermittently and must also allow key biological molecules to survive."
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