Maybe the assumption underground lake on the red planet discovered in 2018 it actually wasn’t. Our joy in a well. An empty well, indeed. This is the conclusion of a study recently published in Geophysical Research Letters, led by scientists from the University of Texas. In it, they show that, in reality, that trace of water on Mars found by the MARSIS radar It could be something very different from what was believed.
That yes, that there is not liquid water It does not mean that there is no water, because ice has been found. And that there is no liquid water now does not mean that there was not in the past. In fact, the flip side of this study is that they have found some geological evidence of the passage of liquid water by the red planet in the distant past.
They have come to this conclusion again with data from MARSIS, which traveled to Mars in 2005 as one of the mission’s instruments. Mars Express, from the European Space Agency (ESA). The difference is that this time they have found an image very similar to the one taken from the bowels of the Martian south pole. And it is not precisely liquid water with which it corresponds.
In search of liquid water on Mars
According to the article published in Science in 2018, liquid water on Mars would be in a raft of about 20 kilometers, located under the icy surface of its south pole.
They reached this conclusion after seeing in the radar images some bright reflections that seemed to correspond to those that would cause an underground accumulation of the liquid element.
However, at all times the authors of that investigation warned that their results they were not final. And, little by little, new data found fault with the theory of the underground lake. To begin with, very specific conditions were needed for water on Mars to be able to stay in liquid state. He explained it in a release the lead author of this latest study, Cyril Grim: “For water to stay so close to the surface, you need both a very salty environment like a heat source strong locally generated But that doesn’t match what we know about this region.”
This, in fact, is something that was already made clear in another study, published in 2020, in which the possible existence of an entire network of lakes was pointed out, instead of just one as was intuited in 2018.
Therefore, the conditions do not seem to be the most suitable. And as if that were not enough, in this new study models have also been made in which these underground lakes are introduced at the south pole and are seen through a global ice sheet. The result was nothing like what MARSIS captured in the past. But, then, what is it that lies below the Martian surface?
A much drier explanation
Much of the surface of Mars is covered by volcanic plains. It is a well-known part of the Martian landscape. But could it also be from within?
In order to verify this, these scientists compared the images of the volcanic rocks on the surface with what MARSIS captured under the south pole. And sure enough, that bright pattern seemed to square much more with that than with the presence of liquid water. In fact, those glows were found at various points, coinciding with the volcanic plains. Therefore, it could be that the volcanic rock It would have penetrated until it was buried under the ice.
It’s not all bad news
The presence of water on Mars in a liquid state would be a good indication of the existence of life. Therefore, this study can be a setback in the search for extraterrestrial life. Now, not everything is bad among their conclusions.
In fact, they also show the presence of clay rocks that could have been shaped by water erosion. Liquid water, of course. And this, as explained in the previous statement by the geophysicist isaac smith, is great news, because “while it shoots down the idea that there could be liquid water below the planet’s south pole today, it also gives us really precise places to look for evidence of ancient lakes and riverbeds and test hypotheses about drying more extensive climate of Mars over billions of years. Come on, one lime and one sand. Or one of water and another of volcanic rock.