New research based on seismic readings from NASA’s Mars InSight lander suggests that there may be enough water hidden in the cracks of underground rocks beneath the surface of Mars to form an ocean. The study, which combined computer models with InSight data, found that the water is located between 11.5km to 20km beneath the surface and likely collected billions of years ago when Mars had rivers, lakes, and possibly oceans.
Lead scientist Vashan Wright of the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography stated that the ingredients for life as we know it exist in the Martian subsurface if the interpretations are correct. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was also authored by Matthias Morzfeld and Michael Manga.
InSight Lander, NASA’s first craft dedicated to studying Mars’s interior, detected more than 1,300 marsquakes before shutting down in 2022. If InSight’s location at Elysium Planitia near Mars’s equator is representative of the rest of the planet, the underground water could potentially fill a global ocean 1-2km deep. Confirming the presence of water and seeking out signs of microbial life would require drills and other equipment.
Scientists have been analyzing the data collected by InSight in search of more information about Mars’s interior. Mars, which was wet more than 3 billion years ago, is believed to have lost its surface water as its atmosphere thinned, leaving behind a dry, dusty world. The theory is that much of the ancient water either escaped into space or remains buried below the surface.
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