Scientists say radar data suggests there's liquid water beneath a Mars ice cap.
Scientists have long sought evidence of liquid water on Mars, and it appears that mission may have recently been accomplished, based on a new paper published in Science. A team of Italian researchers has announced the discovery of a lake beneath an ice cap in the Red Planet's south pole, notes Gizmodo. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, radar readings taken by European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft suggest the lake measures roughly twelve-and-a-half miles across and rests approximately a mile beneath the surface. While temperatures at that depth are low enough to freeze pure water, the team suggests that "dissolved salts of magnesium, calcium, and sodium - known to be present in Martian rocks - could be dissolved in the water to form a brine. Together with the pressure of the overlying ice, this lowers the melting point, allowing the lake to remain liquid, as happens on Earth." The Atlantic reports that the study's lead author, Roberto Orosei, did note: "Getting there and acquiring the final evidence that this is indeed a lake will not be an easy task. It will require flying a robot there which is capable of drilling through [about 1 mile] of ice, and this will certainly require some technological developments that at the moment are not available."
