March, saltwater lake under the surface. Italian discovery: "possible life forms"

The dowsers of the cosmos and their long sticks hit the center: of water liquid and salt on March . And in such abundance as to create a potentially favorable environment – now or in the past – for life forms not as infinitesimal as bacteria.

What a leap for Science and its eternal pursuit of extraterrestrial existence. A discovery so noisy that the Science magazine will devote its next cover to this research that further confirms the very close link between Italy and the red planet: the Italians are the leaders of this exploration, 225 million kilometers from the Earth. [19659003] ALSO READ: Sunsets and craters: the spectacular 3D photos of Mars taken by the Italian camera
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This branch of Mars Lake was identified by the Mars (Advanced Mars Radar for the Underground and Ionospheric) Mars radar of the Mars Express European Orbital Probe under the South Pole at a depth of one kilometer. kilometer. irreparable ice. A basin of a diameter of 20 kilometers (a little less than Lake Lake Bracciano ) and the thickness – it is presumed – from at least a few meters, even if the data could expand a lot. Liquid water and obviously salty because otherwise the radar would have identified a gigantic iceberg but much less interesting and promising since in these regions, descending towards the heart of a dead planet and without current volcanic activity, the thermometer goes down at least 150 degrees.

A moment, but the presence of water on the arid and desert and practically devoid of atmospheric Mars are not decades, if not centuries as we speak? And has its existence not already been established thanks to other missions, starting with the pioneer of the American Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1965? On the net, then, there is no announcement of this and other research that confirms the circumstance. Three years ago, for example, the trumpets were NASA just by chance (watch a bit) of the film's release The Martian of Ridley Scott with Matt Damon .

The discovery of hot water, in short, that announced today at the headquarters of the Italian Space Agency in Tor Vergata? No, not really: this time, there is the smoking rifle, the proof of this magnificent achievement obtained thanks to the intuitions of the Italian scientist Giovanni Picardi of the Sapienza of Rome, who died three years ago. Suggestions and hypotheses are scanned by the completeness of the data collected and badyzed from 2015 to date by scientists from Asi Inaf Cnr and Roma Tre University Sapienza and D'Annunzio who made a jump to his colleagues around the world

It is no longer a question of alleged icy superficial water veins or permafrost, the most exposed layer of soil soaked with water also icy. Environments hostile to most life forms. No, this time we have identified water in the liquid, salty (with salts only from antifreeze) and in an environment sheltered from the deadly radiation that for three billion years. Years, cremates the Martian crust up to 80 centimeters deep. And now some ingredients for a primordial broth encouraging and repaired already seem to exist.

To confirm irrefutably, the echoes of the waves launched by Marsis radar that equips the probe Mars Express took off from Bajkonur in 2003, in orbital flight up to 250 kilometers tall (a trifle) of red earth. This is the instrument, recalls Enrico Flamini chief scientist ASI, designed by Picardi and directed by Asi and Thales Alenia Space-Italy with the help of NASA who already in the Apollo mission had tested technologies of this type

Marsis has two fine kevlar antennas 20 meters long (other than Matt Damon here we are with Russell Crowe in the film The Diviner of the Water, the Rower) and, thanks to its frequencies, is able to study up to 5 kilometers deep on Mars. The waves then bounce and thanks to these echoes, scientists understand what they've gone through. Without doubt: the Martian results in the region of Planum Austral are comparable in all respects to those obtained with the same systems tracing the subsoil of the Antarctic terrestrial still in search of water.

Moreover, Mars – And here is much of the fascination for the Red Planet of Aristotle to Galileo to Schiaparelli to the present day – represents the future of the distant Earth yes, over time, billions of years, but already worth studying if you want to understand the reasons for life and death of d & # 39; a planet and what it takes to walk in space, maybe act – without illusions of all power, we would miss – its (and ours) greater protection.

The presence of water in the liquid state (and not so inaccessible to technologies that will be able to plant tents on Mars) revives the possibility of the present presence of life on the Red Planet and also makes it possible to plan with more certainty the missions of colonization: by necessity Parmitano or Cristoforetti of the future will not be able to transport everything [19659009] In the article published by Science it is also pointed out that the Martian lake could be only the first of the other underground basins: in fact, it will take more time to study the formidable mbad of data provided in these 12 years Marsis radar that were also crossed with those of another Italian radar, the Sharad, installed on NASA's MRO probe. Data that will also be reviewed by NASA who announced the discovery of organic molecules by the Curiosity rover in the Gale crater two months ago.

And then this liquid and salty water identified under the South Martian Pole connects the first visions of the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli (1877) to the second stage of the European mission Exomars in 2020. Schiaparelli thought to identify the channels dug once by the water on the surface of Mars (later in the English translation the spontaneous channels became artificial fueling the myth of the Martians), while the exercise of Leonardo of the rover Exomars will for the first time drill the Martian soil to the depth of two meters compared to the few centimeters of the current robots thus reaching sheltered layers of radiation which, besides the water, could accommodate life forms or traces of their existence. [19659003]

THE SCIENTISTS
Thanks especially to the NASA Viking probe since 1976, it became clear that the surface of Mars was once covered by seas, lakes and rivers and the following missions this presence is confirmed more and more. "The big dilemma was therefore the one from which all this water is finished – tells Roberto Orosei of Inaf, first author of the article – Much of this was washed away by the solar wind, which has swept away that which has gradually evaporated from the surface of the puddles of water.Another important part is deposited in the form of ice in the ice caps, especially the north, and in the layers near the surface or is bound to the ground in the permafrost.But some must have been trapped in the depths and could still be in the liquid state. "This is what had been badumed at the mid-1990s, when the Mars Express mission was announced by the European Space Agency and ASI proposed to adopt a low-frequency radar to study the subsoil at great depth. Successful Strategy

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BATTISTON PRESIDENT
Roberto Battiston President of the ASI," This discovery is one of the most important in recent years. decades, the Italian space system is engaged in research on Mars with Esa and NASA.Marchis results confirm the excellence of our scientists and our technology, and are a new proof of the importance of the Esa mission to the Italian ExoMars leaders, who will arrive in 2020 on the red planet in search of traces of life. "

THE" COMPANIES "OF RESEARCH
Roberto Orosei, HE Lauro, Elena Pettinelli, A. Cicchetti, M. Coradini, B. Cosciotti, F. Di Paolo, Enrico Flamini, E.
Mattei, M. Pajola, F. Soldovieri, M. Cartacci, F. Cbadenti, A. Frigeri, S. Giuppi, R Martufi, A. Masdea, G. Mitri, C. Nenna, R. Noschese, M. Restano, R. Seu