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Liquid water found on Mars: Does this mean there could be life on the Red Planet?
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  • Liquid water found on Mars: Does this mean there could be life on the Red Planet?

Liquid water found on Mars: Does this mean there could be life on the Red Planet?

FP Explainers • August 13, 2024, 12:38:17 IST
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A first-of-its-kind discovery suggests that there is ocean-worth of liquid water on Mars, deep in the planet’s outer crust. The new study paves the way for further research into the habitability of Mars and the search for life beyond Earth

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Liquid water found on Mars: Does this mean there could be life on the Red Planet?
Scientists have for the first time found evidence of liquid water on Mars. The findings were based on seismic measurements from Nasa’s Mars InSight lander, which detected more than 1,300 marsquakes. This is one of the last images ever taken by lander. Nasa

Is there life on Mars? It’s a question that has been asked time and again. Now scientists have discovered a reservoir of liquid water on the Red Planet. Water, as we know, is essential for the existence of any life.

The findings are part of a new analysis of seismic data from Nasa’s Mars InSight Lander, an outer space robotic explorer, which touched down on the planet in 2018. The lander carried a seismometer, which detected more than 1,300 marsquakes before shutting down two years ago.

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Now studying those quakes from deep inside the planet revealed signs of “liquid water”.

We look at the findings and what they could mean for research on alien life.

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What do we know about water on Mars?

It is the first time that scientists have revealed that they have found evidence of liquid water on Mars. The water is hiding in cracks in underground rocks – it is beneath the surface of the Red Planet and it is too far below to access.

This water is believed to be seven miles to 12 miles (11.5 kilometres to 20 kilometres) down in the Martian midcrust. It is composed of igneous rock with thin fractures filled with liquid water.

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It most likely would have seeped from the surface billions of years ago when Mars harboured rivers, lakes and possibly oceans, according to the lead scientist, Vashan Wright of the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which led the research.

This is the “best evidence yet” that Mars still has liquid water in addition to frozen water at its poles, according to the findings.

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The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This image provided by Nasa shows the InSight Mars lander in a selfie photo composite on April 24 2022. Nasa via AP

How much water is there on Mars?

According to scientists, there’s enough water on Mars to fill “oceans” on the surface of the planet. If the area studied is a representative location, the Martian midcrust could contain a volume of liquid water “exceeding that of hypothesised ancient oceans,” the study said.

The research estimates that the amount of groundwater under the Martian surface could cover the whole planet to a depth of about a mile, reports USA TODAY.

As rovers collect data from the planet’s surface, it has become clear that Mars was not as dry and dusty as today. It had tonnes of water as is evident from the terrain, the minerals and ancient dry beds and deltas. So what happened? For three billion years, it has been a desert.

The lander carried a seismometer, which recorded four years’ of quakes from deep inside Mars. Nasa

Prof Michael Manga, from the University of California, Berkeley, who was involved in the research, said that water was “the most important molecule in shaping the evolution of a planet”. This finding, he said, answers the big question of “where did all the Martian water go?”.

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Some of the water evaporated into gas when Mars lost its atmosphere. Prof Manga added that on Earth, “much of our water is underground and there’s no reason for that not to be the case on Mars too”.

Does the presence of water mean there could be life on Mars?

The research is important because “understanding the Martian water cycle is critical for understanding the evolution of the climate, surface and interior,” Wright, an assistant professor at Scripps, said in a statement. “A useful starting point is to identify where water is and how much is there.”

According to scientists, the discovery reveals important details about Mars’ history. “Establishing that there is a big reservoir of liquid water provides some window into what the climate was like or could be like,” Prof Manga said in a statement. “And water is necessary for life as we know it.”

“I don’t see why [the underground water] is not a habitable environment,” he added, noting that far down environments on Earth like “deep, deep mines” and the “bottom of the ocean” host life as well.

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Scientists say there’s enough water on Mars to fill ‘oceans’ on the planet’s surface. Nasa

However, the researcher clarified that no evidence of alien life has been found. “We haven’t found any evidence for life on Mars, but at least we have identified a place that should, in principle, be able to sustain life,” Prof Manga was quoted as saying by Forbes.

Wright said that just because water still may be sloshing around inside Mars does not mean it holds life. “Instead, our findings mean that there are environments that could possibly be habitable,” he said in an email, reports The Associated Press (AP).

Can the water be used?

The water is not accessible. It would not be of much use to anyone trying to tap into it to supply a future Mars colony, according to a statement from the University of California, Berkeley. It added that even on Earth, drilling a hole a half-mile deep is difficult.

“Accessing the water could be challenging," Wright said. Prof Manga joked that it could be a new challenge for Elon Musk to solve.
_
With inputs from agencies_

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