On March, they discovered a lake of liquid water

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BRATISLAVA. Researchers have been able to conclude a long-standing debate about the existence of liquid water on Mars

Under the southern polar cap, scientists have now discovered evidence of the lake.

Previous research has already found possible indications of running water, but it is the first evidence of the presence of liquid water on the red planet

The study published in the scientific journal

It's not that hot water

The water on Mars was there are billion years. This is evidenced by the dry surfaces of lakes and channels on the surface. At that time, Mars had more appropriate conditions

Currently, we see water on Mars only in its polar ice caps. And just beneath their surface, the liquid water of the Mars Express probe was discovered with the help of a radar that could cross the coarse ice sheets of a polar ice cap in the plain. southern Australe.

Scientists estimate that the lake is less than 1.5 kilometers of ice

The radar profile that shows the probe is similar to the profile that makes probes under the glaciers of Antarctica or Greenland, where the lakes are also located. It is obvious that scientists have actually discovered the lake under the Martian glaciers.

Scientists estimate that the lake can measure at least one meter deep. It's a lake, not just the melted water that fills a place between rocks and ice, as can be seen in some glaciers on Earth, "says Roberto Orosei, research director, at the BBC

What it Means for Life

When we seek life in other places of the universe, we try to find what we know about Earth. For the emergence of life on Earth, a solid surface and water were needed.

The surface of Mars is now inhospitable to life as we know it.The search for signs of life on Mars is therefore misplaced rather under the surface

Under the Martian surface, there may be sufficient radiation protection and more acceptable temperatures, but the discovery of water on Mars did not help us to find life [19659004] "We are no closer to the true discovery of life", exp lique the planetologist Manish Patel, who has not participated in the discovery of the BBC. "But this discovery gives us a place where we could pick it up on Mars, it's like a treasure map – but in this case there will be a lot of X markings in the right places."

The problem for a possible life may also be the temperature composition of the lake

The temperature of the Martian lake is apparently below freezing, can be from minus ten to minus thirty degrees Celsius. Despite the low temperature, the lake is liquid, and it is obviously a salty chemical composition and partly the pressure of the glacier.

"If Martian life is earthly life, the lake is too cold and salty," David Stillman, a geophysicist, for the journal Science, did not join the study.