NASA publishes a statement on the potential discovery of a large water plan on Mars



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After a group published a study claiming to have discovered a large volume of water on Mars, NASA issued a statement saying the results were "extremely intriguing" and "certainly warrant a more study." depth. "

The article from the Italian Mars Advanced Radar for the underground and ionospheric sounding was published in the journal Science on Wednesday, July 25. He describes the discovery of a "bright spot" about 1 mile below the ice cap of the planet Planum Austral.

NASA reports Thursday that this bright spot has been interpreted by the group as being liquid water, essential to life as we know it.

"The bright spot seen in the MARSIS data is an unusual and extremely intriguing feature," said NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green in the statement. "That deserves to be deepened, other evidence must be sought to test the interpretation."

"We hope to use other instruments to study it." more thoroughly in the future. "

Intriguing! @ESA #MarsExpress may have found groundwater near the south pole of #March . My heat probe data may follow this discovery. at work https://t.co/HwiioCRQHQ pic.twitter.com/h7Mklp6mGl

– NASAInSight (@NASAInSight) July 26, 2018

The US Space Agency stresses that one of these instruments to study this potential discovery is the InSight lander, which is expected to land on Mars on November 26th of this year. Once on the surface of the red planet, InSight will become the first since the Apollo missions to place a seismometer on the surface of another planet or another moon.

InSight will seek to dig deeper into Mars than ever before. NASA says the main objective of the mission will be to improve its understanding of the formation, evolution, and history of rocky planets, including the Earth.

"Follow the Water" was one of the main goals of NASA's March program, "reports the space agency. "Water is currently driving NASA into the outer solar system, where the oceanic worlds – like the moon of Jupiter Europa and the moon Enceladus of Saturn – can sustain life."

"Even protoplanets like Ceres can explain how water is stored in the rocky "buckets" that carry water through the solar system.

As for the study published earlier this week, the researchers say that they exclude a "number of possible explanations" and conclude that "the existence of water liquid layer of water distinct or in the form of saturated sediment, as the only explanation. "

The water was discovered using ESA's Express satellite and its" Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding "device. water for three years and spent the last two years looking more closely at its results to make sure that they had detected water and not ice.According to the climate, the icecaps grow and shrink due to deposition and erosion events, creating a unique stratigraphy inside the ice caps, made up of equal age layers that scientists can badyze for information on the past climate., "The study reads.

"The changes of ice flow due to the water at the base can change the appearance of these layers fracacial, this must be considered by restoring their age.Analysis these reflectors englacial, taking the new discoveries of liquid water beneath the SPLD, can therefore help unravel the climatic history of Mars. "

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