Mars is the only planet in the solar system that may support humans soon because it is still within the sun’s range to provide heat and might contain water underground, which is essential for the proliferation of life. According to scientists, during its formation process about three million years ago, water may have flowed to the Red Planet. But then the climate changed, and the dry land we can observe today was left behind. When the planet entered the Amazonian period, everything changed in the atmosphere.
Water on Mars is thought to be non-existent
A theory suggests that Mars lost its water billions of years ago when a solar wind struck the planet. Another theory is that the water did not vanish, but rather sank into the crust, creating water tables deep underground.
Mars’ atmosphere is very thin, which means its magnetic field is not as strong as the Earth’s and cannot hold many things inside, like water.
For years, NASA and other space agencies sent rovers to explore beneath the surface equipped with radars before, but it can only see a few miles before the electromagnetic signal disappears.
The responsible for the discovery is professor Prof. Weijia Sun of the Chinese Academy of Science, and his team. Instead of using radar, they used collected data from seismic activity caused by meteorite impacts and one of the most significant Martian earthquakes ever. The analysis revealed a zone deep underground where seismic waves slowed down, pointing to water in a liquid state, suggesting that the planet might still harbor a vast amount thought to be lost.
“Unlike traditional receiver function techniques, we introduce the concept of true-amplitude imaging, a method adapted from the oil exploration field, which significantly improves resolution and allows the detection of much smaller structures,” Sun said.
A study suggests a potential water reserve
By analyzing how the waves reflected in the crust, it allowed the team to map its structure and search for inconsistencies in the way these waves traveled across the Mars crust. The anomalies might hint at liquid water hiding under the surface – the area where the waves slowed down could be filled with liquid water.
The altered basalts rock at this area have high porosity, a feature that might allow holding water inside. According to Dr. Sun, seismic waves travel faster through dry rocks since it don’t have anything to absorb the power, and when they meet water-saturated rocks, it slows down significantly
Based on data, the estimated range is between 569 and 853 yards (520 to 780 meters) of Global Equivalent Gel in Mars – a metric used to quantify the volume of water across an entire surface of a planet or the moon.
The co-author of the study, Professor Hrvoje Tkalčić at The Australian National University, argues that this research is limited by the area they looked into, and that does not mean there is more of it in the rest of the planet.
The professor believes the presence of water in Martian soil holds a significant implication for the future when humans finally make the trip to the planet and the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life.
Humanity might never find a planet like Earth
Humanity wishes to habituate other planets and expand for a long time, but with the conditions inside the solar system not being favorable to sustain life, the Red Planet is the only that has some Earth-like characteristics, but it is smaller and colder, as it is further away from the sun – which means the heat is not enough to warm the planet and help in the proliferation of life. Scientists cannot explore further deep in space because it might take hundreds of years just to get halfway.