Mars has huge water reserves – researcher sees ‘habitable environment’

NASA’s InSight spacecraft, which landed on Mars in 2018, played a crucial role in this discovery. Among other things, the lander examined the interior of the Red Planet using a seismometer. It recorded several marsquakes as strong as magnitude 5. Although the mission ended in 2022, the data collected still provides valuable insights into the interior of Mars.

NASA's InSight lander shows evidence of water inside Mars

In the data, the research team led by Fashan Wright (UC Berkeley and Scripps Institution of Oceanography) found evidence that there must be a large reservoir of water in the middle crust of Mars. To do this, the team used a mathematical model used on Earth to map underground oil fields. The study In the specialized magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Published.

Data from NASA's lander suggests that water is present in tiny cracks and pores in Martian rocks – at depths of between 11.5 and 20 kilometers. This means that the water is not directly accessible for research purposes – to do that, you would have to be able to drill to very great depths, which is currently not possible even on Earth. However, the new discovery is important for research that, among other things, wants to find out how Mars lost its water three billion years ago and where the water went.

Liquid Water on Mars: Understanding the Water Cycle Is Important

“Understanding the water cycle on Mars is critical to understanding the evolution of the planet’s climate, surface, and interior,” Wright says in his article. Note“The discovery of a large reservoir of liquid water provides insight into what the climate was or could have been like,” adds his colleague Michael Manga (UC Berkeley), professor of Earth and planetary sciences. “Water is essential to life, like us,” he adds. “We know that.”

According to the research team, there is so much water inside Mars that it could cover the entire red planet with an ocean one to two kilometers deep. However, given its depth, it is unlikely to be available as a resource for future Mars settlers.

Groundwater reservoir on Mars may be 'habitable environment'

However, the manga world has an interesting idea: “I don't know why [das unterirdische Reservoir] “It shouldn’t be a habitable environment. On Earth, that’s certainly the case, deep mines harbor life, the ocean floor harbors life,” he continues. “We haven’t found any evidence of life on Mars, but at least we’ve identified a place that should, in principle, be able to support life.” (unpaid invoice)