Mars Liquid Water Lake Detected Beneath Southern Polar Ice Cap

Scientists have announced the discovery of liquid water on Mars, a milestone find located at the Red Planet's southern polar ice cap. The subglacial lake's existence is teased by more than two dozen radar samplings of the regions, which were found to have similar profiles to subglacial lakes on Earth near Greenland and the Antarctic.

Researchers have long debated over whether Mars contains liquid water, a question that has finally (for the most part) been settled. Scientists used the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARIS) instrument, which is located on the Mars Express spacecraft. With this, radar pulses were sent outward, ultimately bouncing back to the spacecraft.

Experts can determine things about the sub-surface features reflecting these radar pulses, gaining an element of insight into the Red Planet's hidden layers. For around three years, according to EurekAlert, researchers used the MARIS tool to study the Planum Australe, Mars' southern ice cap.

During this time, the researchers found a region in the planet's south pole that produced "very sharp" changes in the nature of the radar signals. This drastic change, as mentioned above, is similar to radar signal profiles acquired from glacial regions on Earth where liquid water is known to exist beneath the ice.

Based on that data, researchers believe Mars' southern polar ice cap features a liquid body of water hidden under ice, one likely filled with a type of brine containing things like salt and/or magnesium that enable it to remain a liquid at such cold temperatures. The ice caps above the lake likewise increase pressure, impacting the melt point and potentially helping pave the way for a subglacial liquid water lake.

SOURCE: EurekAlert