Three more bodies of water may have been discovered on Mars, study suggests
Scientists have new evidence pointing to the presence of water on Mars, adding intrigue about the possibility of life on the Red Planet.
The findings, published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy, provide more evidence of a lake on Mars' south pole – first discovered in 2018. The researchers also say they found three additional possible bodies of water nearby.
“It’s a complex system,” co-author and Roma Tre University planetary scientist Elena Pettinelli told Nature.
The bodies of water are more than half a mile deep under Mars' surface and span an area of nearly 30,000 square miles, according to Nature. The largest lake found in 2018 may be nearly 20 miles wide, while the other three are much smaller.
The scientists relied on data collected by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding, or MARSIS, on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter.
The MARSIS uses radio waves to detect the types of materials on Mar's surface and subsurfaces. The instrument was used in 2018 by some of the same scientists to document the first body of water.
According to Nature, the 2018 results were based on 29 observations made from 2012 to 2015. The results published Tuesday relied on 134 observations from 2012 to 2019.
"We are much more confident now," Pettinelli told NBC News. "We did many more observations, and we processed the data completely differently."
Pettinelli told NBC News the new method is similar to how lakes beneath Antarctica's ice sheet are found. Her team processed their data the same way they did in 2018, too, to further support their conclusions.
Mars' climate does not allow for water on the surface, but evidence of water is obvious on the planet's surface in the form of vast dried-out river valley networks from eons ago.
Some scientists have long suspected, however, that some water could be trapped under Mars' surface. And that's added intrigue about whether there is or ever was enough water with the right conditions to support life on the planet.
The bodies of water detailed in the Nature Astronomy article are thought to have high levels of salt, which could allow for the water to remain liquid. While in some cases that may make supporting life more challenging, some organisms could survive in the extreme conditions, the study authors suggest.
"The possibility of extended hypersaline water bodies on Mars is particularly exciting because of the potential for the existence of microbial life, such as extremophiles, anaerobes or even aerobes" the study says.
However, not all are convinced what the study details are bodies of water.
"I do not think there are lakes," Jack Holt, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, told Nature. "There is not enough heat flow to support a brine here, even under the ice cap."
Mike Sori, a planetary geophysicist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, told Nature he thinks the data may point more toward the water being "some sort of slush or sludge."
Contributing: Doyle Rice
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mars: Water in three lakes may be under surface, Nature study says
