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The discovery was presented Wednesday by researchers from the headquarters of the Italian Space Agency. At the south pole of Mars, a large salt water lake of at least 20 kilometers lies. The huge pool of water accumulated in the underground lake was discovered thanks to the results of the radar installed in the Mars Express probe of the European Space Agency.
To achieve this determination, several years of study were needed to eliminate any other possible explanation, until we came to the conclusion that it was water . For Roberto Battiston, president of the Italian Space Agency, this finding is "the most important of recent years".
This is not the first time that we talk about the possible existence of water on Mars 30 years ago, the American astronomer Steve Clifford has was the first to theorize about the existence of liquid water lakes under the ice of Mars poles. The discovery becomes the first place of a large mbad of liquid water on Mars.
Between May 2012 and the end of 2015, the Mars Express spacecraft flew over a strip of land at the south pole of Mars, a region known as Planum. Austral, from about 200 kilometers, there the radar equipped in the Mars Express probe sent radio signals to the surface of the planet. During this exploration, the drawn profile turned out to be very similar to that of the large lakes of liquid water found under Antarctica and Greenland on Earth
"It is very difficult to know the depth of the lake because the water absorbs the radar signals, we only see its surface, but at least we talk about one meter deep, "he told the Spanish newspaper El País Roberto Orosei, of the National Institute of Astrophysics of Italy and lead author of the study
. To be able to find evidence, it will be difficult and it will take many years because it will have to be drilled. For Orosei it is a good start to continue the badysis of the red planet thanks to the Mars Express probe, launched in 2003 with the aim of studying the Martian atmosphere, its geology and of find traces of water.
Anja Rutishauser, Researcher According to the University of Alberta, the subglacial lakes of the Earth, whether they be fresh or salt water, harbor microbial communities despite their isolation of the atmosphere and their extreme temperature and darkness. This shows that life can adapt to very extreme conditions, although the temperatures in the water plane of the south pole of Mars are much lower than those observed in similar terrestrial lakes and its composition chemical is too.
the hypothesis should drill the ice at the deposit, with completely sterilized tools of any kind of terrestrial microbe that can alter the results and it will take at least 15 more years to explore the entire South Pole of Mars, but there is only four or five years of operation left, since the batteries are very worn and there is little fuel
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