Are we a step closer to finding life on Mars?

THE ENDURING mystery of whether there really is life on Mars could be one step closer to being solved after scientists found a huge lake on the Red Planet.

The 12-mile wide lake lies beneath the southern ice cap of Mars, and 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 planet, was made by an Italian team of scientists carrying out a radar survey using the Mars Express spacecraft. It is the first time a large stable body of liquid water has been confirmed to exist on Mars.

Speaking in a recorded interview released by the Science journal, Prof Roberto Orosei, from the University of Bologna, revealed that his team spent years checking their results before being confident enough to announce the discovery.

“We found that any other explanation for these very strong echoes was not really tenable in light of the evidence that we had available,” he said. “We had to conclude that there is water on Mars today.”

The lake, similar to those beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets on Earth, lies nearly a 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.