Lake of water is spotted on Mars Discovery made by probe
BY JOHN VON RADOWITZ A HUGE 12-mile wide lake of liquid water lies beneath the southern ice cap of Mars, scientists have learned.
Dissolved salts are thought to keep the water fluid – despite having a temperature below freezing point.
The discovery – which has major implications for the chances of life surviving on the red planet – was made by an orbiting European probe using ground-penetrating radar.
It is the first time a large stable body of liquid water has been confirmed to exist on Mars.
The lake – similar to those beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets on Earth – lies about one mile below the surface of a region called Planum Australe, close to the Martian south pole.
With surface temperatures as low as minus 68C, it would not exist as a liquid under normal conditions.
But dissolved salts of magnesium, calcium and sodium – known to be present in Martian rocks – are thought to maintain the briny miniature sea by reducing the melting point of water to minus 74C.
An Italian team of scientists detected the lake while carrying out a radar survey using the Mars Express spacecraft.
Professor Roberto Orosei, from Bologna University, wrote in the journal Science: “Anomalously bright subsurface reflections are evident within a well-defined 12 mile-wide zone which is surrounded by much less reflective areas.
“We interpret this feature as a stable body of liquid water on Mars.”