Mars hosts a huge underground aquifer of liquid water, according to a group of scientists who say they have found convincing evidence. The underground lake has not been seen directly, but if it's real, it's a discovery that really increases the likelihood that the Red Planet might host life.
Researchers detected the possible reservoir with the Mars Express Orbiter, a European spacecraft that's been orbiting Mars since 2003. While scanning the ice cap at Mars' south pole, the probe's radar instrument, called MARSIS, was detected a feature of the area that was about 12.4 miles wide. The structure has a radar signature that matches that of buried liquid water here on Earth, leading the team to a lake under the glacier. The researchers say they've seen all the other possibilities for what they're seeing.
"I've run out of ideas on how to be successful," Roberto Orosei, a researcher at Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics and lead of the team that found the formation, tells The Verge . "
