There is an ocean of liquid water hidden in the depths of Mars, suggest seismic waves

“Like a highly porous, porous rock -filled sponge, it should be in a medium -depth underground layer, it reveals a new study with insight probe data.

One huge liquid water reservoir It may be hidden in the depths of Mars’s surface, indicating that the red planet can sustain life.

New seismic evidence, presented in a study on April 25 in the National Science Reviewsuggest that buried water may be equivalent to the volume of an ocean that covers the whole planet Martiandepths ranging from 520 to 780 meters.

The data have come from the spacecraft, parked on Mars since 2018 and “” since 2022, and allowed to analyze the travels of seismic waves caused by Martian earthquakes and asteroid impacts of 2021 and 2022, according to the.

NASA’s famous probe identified a slowdown in seismic waves at depths between 5.4 and 8 kilometers, which points to the existence of a “Low -speed layer” – Exactly what would be expected if porous rocks were saturated with liquid water, the study authors explain to.

“This layer is probably a highly porous rock full of liquid water, like a saturated sponge,” he said Hrvoje Tkalčićco -author of the study and professor of geophysics at the Australian National University. They are the underground aquifers of the Earth.

The belief that Mars has had a water -rich environment is not new. Between 4.1 billion and 3 billion years ago, its surface showed signs of continuous flow of water, including river and deltas valleys.

“We found evidence of wind, waves, a place where there is no shortage of sand – A real vacation beach“This February, geologist Benjamin Cardenas, co -author of a study published in the same month about the neighbor of the Earth, courteous, courtesy of Chinese Rover Zhurong.

But as the planet was losing its magnetic field, solar radiation removed its atmosphere and caused a huge drop in temperatures and the liquid water loss.

Part of this water escaped to space; Part frozen in the polar hubcaps or underground ice; Another part was connected to minerals in the crust. But another part is still left, a mysterious “missing” part of water, which the calculations said it existed, but was not identified – possibly only so far.

“Our study indicates that it is possible that much of this ancient water has infiltrated through the porous rocks of the surface and has been retained underground,” said Tkalčić, who ensures that this water “It corresponds to estimates of ‘absent’ water on Mars done by other studies.”

Other studies have pointed to the possibility of ice or may be hiding this water under the Martian surface, or rocks to depths between 11 and 21 kilometers below the surface.

This new seismic evidence, however, suggests that there is liquid water in a underground layer of average depth.

Direct confirmation of new evidence will require future missions capable of drilling several kilometers below the Martian surface. To confirm, Mars may have already sustained life in the past and even sustain life in the future.