Scientists Discover a Body of Water on Mars
A lake of liquid, salty water has been detected by Italian researchers beneath the southern polar ice cap of Mars. Italian Space Agency researchers believe the lake exists one mile below the surface and stretches for about 12.5 miles.
Related – NASA Finds Signs of Potential Ancient Life on Mars
The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument (MARSIS) gathered the evidence of water from 2012-2015. 29 sets of radar samples indicated signal changes beneath the Mars surface that resemble lakes found on earth beneath Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
“We interpret this feature as a stable body of liquid water on Mars.” – Italian Space Agency, via CNN
The Martian water is most likely below the freezing point, but salts already found on Mars could help the water form a brine. The means it’s possible the lake is liquid. “I can’t absolutely prove it’s water, but I sure can’t think of anything else that looks like this thing does other than liquid water.” – Richard Zurek, Mars Program Office NASA’s JPL, via ‘Wired’