Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, say they discovered this evidence by studying seismic data recorded by the Insight lander.
“We know that water is essential for the existence of terrestrial life,” says Professor Michael Manga. “I see no reason to doubt that the subsurface water reservoir of Mars is habitable because its terrestrial counterparts are habitable. Of course, we have not yet discovered life on Mars, but we know that there is a medium in which it could in principle exist.”
According to him, planetary scientists have discovered numerous evidences over the past two decades of rivers, lakes and even freshwater oceans on the surface of Mars. Experts believe that it once contained as much water as the Earth’s Arctic Ocean, but when did this water appear and where did it disappear? Scientists have yet to determine.
The professor believes that this water did not evaporate, as many believe, but rather penetrated deep into the porous rocks of the Martian crust at a depth of 11-20 km. The professor reached this conclusion from studying and analyzing the seismic data recorded by the InSight landing platform in 2018-2022.
Calculations by astronomers have shown that the middle and lower layers of the Martian crust, located at a depth of 11-20 km, should contain 17 percent pores and other spaces filled with liquid water, and experts estimate their size to be the size of the water that once existed in the Martian oceans, indicating the presence of potentially habitable aquatic environments on present-day Mars.
Source: TASS
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2024-08-14 09:14:06
