Last week, NASA published a groundbreaking study revealing that Mars might harbour a vast subterranean ocean buried deep within its crust. Using data from the InSight lander, which collected seismic readings from 2018 to 2022, researchers identified a large reservoir of liquid water between 11.5 to 20 kilometres beneath the Martian surface. This discovery suggests that enough water is trapped within the porous rocks of Mars’ mid-crust to form a global ocean at least a kilometre deep. This ocean is not a continuous body of water, as we typically imagine oceans on Earth, but rather water saturated within small fissures, cracks, and pores in the rock, akin to how water is stored within the Earth’s aquifers. The water likely trickled into the Martian crust billions of years ago, when Mars had surface rivers, lakes, and even oceans.
One of the most exciting implications of this finding is its potential to harbour life. While direct access to this water would be incredibly challenging due to the depth and geological conditions, the water-saturated rocks could offer a stable, habitable environment for microbial life, like extreme subsurface ecosystems found on Earth. This discovery enhances our understanding of Mars’ geological history and provides a new target for future missions in the search for extraterrestrial life.
The discovery has reignited excitement within the scientific community. It opens up new possibilities for sustaining life on Mars, addressing critical challenges such as water scarcity, food production, and even protection from the planet’s harsh environmental conditions. The discovery significantly reduces the logistical challenges associated with human missions. Water is one of the most critical resources for any manned mission, as it is necessary for drinking, food production, and oxygen generation. Transporting large quantities of water from Earth would be prohibitively expensive and inefficient, but the existence of a Martian water source changes the equation.
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