A new study from the United States has analyzed the data left by NASA’s InSight rover and made an incredible discovery on Mars: An amount of water sufficient to fill a global ocean.
According to a publication in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this body of water still exists in a liquid state beneath the planet’s surface.
Dr. Vashan Wright from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, co-author of the study, stated that the water is located just 11.5 to 20 kilometers beneath the surface of Mars.
NASA’s InSight lander during assembly – (Photo: NASA).
This creates a moist world beneath the planet’s surface, potentially providing favorable conditions for the existence of microbial life, either in the past or present.
“On Earth, we find microbial life deep underground, where rocks are saturated with water and energy sources are available,” explained co-author Michael Manga from the University of California, Berkeley.
This groundwater was discovered from the seismic data collected by InSight. Seismic waves vary depending on the composition of the rocks, fractures, or other materials interspersed within the rock.
It is not a large underground reservoir like those we see on Earth, but rather water flowing within fractured magma rocks, formed during the cooling and solidification of these rocks in the planet’s crust.
If all this water were poured onto the surface of Mars, it would be enough to create a global super ocean with depths ranging from 1 to 2 kilometers.
While it may seem strange, discovering water on Mars is not unreasonable.
According to theories long supported by NASA, contrary to the cold, barren red planet we know today, early Mars—3 billion years ago or more—was once a warm and wet world with rivers, lakes, and seas like Earth.
Where has Mars’ water gone? That remains a mystery. There is some evidence suggesting that environmental fluctuations and atmospheric changes led to water escaping into space.
However, this new study suggests that a portion of that ancient water has actually seeped deep below the planet’s surface, preserving a world still suitable for life.
According to Reuters, this discovery brings great news as NASA and many other space agencies have ambitions to establish a base on Mars.
Thus, alongside offering hope for extraterrestrial life, this local water source could become a resource more valuable than gold for humanity’s “colonization” efforts.
InSight is a robotic lander with the primary mission of collecting seismic data on Mars.
Unlike rovers like Curiosity or Perseverance that can roam freely and are powered by nuclear energy, InSight remains stationary and operates on solar energy.
Therefore, although the instruments were not damaged, the harsh dust storms on Mars have attacked InSight, covering it with thick dust that obscured its solar panels. NASA was forced to declare the end of this mission in December 2022, after four years of operation.
