How did scientists make this discovery?
Using a radar instrument called Marsis on the Mars Express orbiter, researchers from the European Space Agency beamed radar waves at the Martian surface. Radar is able to penetrate the ground. In fact, similar technology has been used here on Earth to find ancient and dry riverbeds under the Sahara and remains of ancient civilizations that are invisible to explorers who walk over the ground.
As the satellite passed near the Martian south pole, they saw reflections from deep underneath the planet's surface that indicated the presence of liquid water. This water isn't easily accessible; it is located about a mile (1.5 kilometers) below the surface.
It is unclear just how much water is involved. Initial indications are that it is a body about 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide. It is not possible to know how deep it is, but it is at least three feet (one meter) thick. If these dimensions are right, this is a considerable amount of water.
The temperature of this water is also important. It's extremely cold -- -90 degrees Fahrenheit (-70 Celsius). Normally water at this temperature would be frozen ice, but the Martian surface has a plentiful reservoir of magnesium, calcium and sodium salts called perchlorates, which can keep water liquid at very low temperatures. Thus, this particular lake would be saltier than the Earth's oceans. However, this isn't an insurmountable problem for future explorers. If they can get to this water that is a mile underground, desalinization techniques exist.
The existence of water on Mars isn't an enormous surprise. We have known for a long time that the surface of Mars was once much warmer and wetter. Chemical tests by earlier probes and images of complex dry river beds attest to that. Further, the existence of ice below the planet's surface has been reported by surveys using other ground penetrating radar.
Hello shohidullah! Welcome to Steemit! Hope you'll like the community here. As a start, here are 5 tips that we believe will be helpful to you:
For a detailed writeup, check our post Getting Started: 5 Essential Tips for New Users.
Good luck on your Steem journey! Follow us if you like to receive more helpful tips and maximize your Steemit experience.
Welcome to Steem, @shohidullah!
I am a bot coded by the SteemPlus team to help you make the best of your experience on the Steem Blockchain!
SteemPlus is a Chrome, Opera and Firefox extension that adds tons of features on Steemit.
It helps you see the real value of your account, who mentionned you, the value of the votes received, a filtered and sorted feed and much more! All of this in a fast and secure way.
To see why 3107 Steemians use SteemPlus, install our extension, read the documentation or the latest release : SteemPlus 2.18.2 : Post and Support.
welcome to steemit shohidullah. good luck and have a great prosperity
Posted using Partiko Android
thanks,Come on with the next time
Hey shohidullah! If you would like to see what the current trending content and topics on the internet are consider following @coffeebreak and @topicstoday accounts to make your personal feed more fun and informative.
Hi @shohidullah, ever wondered how users track their progress?
Most use a tool called SteemTracked
Best of luck for your steemit jorney welcome in steemit community
thanks sir,
Welcome to Steem! Partiko is a fast and beautiful mobile app for Steem and we upvote our users to help them grow! Please feel free to download the Android app here and the iOS app here.
To get more upvotes, please join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/N7Et97G