Geophysicists have made a groundbreaking discovery—a vast hidden ocean beneath the surface of Mars, which they believe could potentially harbor life.
This enormous underground reservoir, detected using seismic data from NASA's InSight Lander, contains enough water to submerge the entire planet under a mile-deep ocean. However, it lies at a depth that remains inaccessible with current technology.
The water is trapped within fractured rock layers located 7 to 13 miles (11.5 to 20 kilometers) beneath the Martian crust. Accessing it would require a drilling operation more advanced than anything ever attempted on Earth.
Despite the challenges, researchers are optimistic about the prospects of exploring this hidden ocean. "Water is essential for life as we know it," said Michael Manga, a professor of Earth and planetary science at UC Berkeley and co-author of the study. "There’s no reason to think that this underground reservoir couldn't be habitable. On Earth, life thrives in deep mines and at the ocean floor."
Although no evidence of life on Mars has been found yet, this discovery identifies a promising location that could, in theory, support life. The researchers published their findings on August 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Mars' surface is scarred with dried-up river channels, deltas, and lake beds, suggesting that water once flowed abundantly across the planet. However, around 3.5 billion years ago, Mars underwent a rapid climate change that stripped away its surface water.
The exact cause of this sudden desiccation remains unknown, but hypotheses include the loss of Mars' magnetic field, asteroid impacts, or ancient microbial life altering the climate. Understanding what led to this dramatic shift and discovering where the water went are key scientific questions.
To probe Mars' interior for clues, researchers utilized data from NASA's InSight lander, a robotic seismology lab that studied the planet's inner workings from 2018 to 2022. InSight's sensors recorded quakes up to magnitude 5, which were triggered by meteor impacts and volcanic activity.
By analyzing this seismic data with mathematical models similar to those used on Earth to locate aquifers and oil deposits, scientists were able to map Mars' interior, revealing details such as the thickness of the crust, the depth of the core, and the composition and temperature of the mantle.
Their analysis of the deeper crust indicated a patchwork of fractured igneous rock containing enough liquid water to fill entire Martian oceans. This finding suggests that the water didn’t escape into space billions of years ago but instead seeped into the planet's crust.
For now, accessing this hidden ocean remains beyond our reach—Earth's deepest borehole, the Kola Superdeep Borehole, only extends 7.6 miles into our planet's surface. However, scientists are also exploring other potential habitats for life on Mars.
NASA's Perseverance rover, which has been exploring Jezero Crater since 2021, may have already collected samples of Martian dust and evidence of ancient life.
A mission to retrieve these samples was initially planned for 2026 but has been postponed to 2040 due to budget constraints.
NASA is currently seeking proposals from private companies to accelerate the mission timeline.
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