7/25/2018 -R. Orosei (Nat'l. Inst. Astrophysics, Bologna)
announced that the Mars
Orbiter has detected a wide lake
(20 km wide) of liquid
water hidden beneath 1.5 km of solid ice near the Red
Planet’s south pole. Three years of Radar
Subsurface Soundings observations from the ESA Mars
Express spacecraft indicated that the reflecting
signals was liquid water. Similar lakes beneath
Antarctica and Greenland have been discovered in the same way
(2013). At -68oC pure water would freeze, thus martian salts in the water might keep this lake liquid and likely muddy. However, Martian temps make it unlikely that even extremophile bacteria might be there. At a minimum of 10 cm depth for the Radar scans suggest it would contain some 10 billion liters of liquid water. If confirmed this will change or view of present-day habitability of Mars. |
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