Скачать или смотреть Scientists may have found liquid water on Mars in a lake buried under the Martian polar cap.

Scientists may have found liquid water on Mars in a lake buried under the Martian polar cap.
 
The scientists announced that they have detected what could be a large reservoir of liquid water the surface of Mars. The "lake" is 20 km wide and is 1.5 km below the southern polar cap of Mars. We know that there was abundant liquid water in ancient Mars. The Curiosity explorer found an ancient channel on the planet that contained evidence of flowing liquid water. Until now, we knew that water exists in the ice around the planet, and that there are signs of liquid water on the surface. But scientists thought that Mars had lost most of its liquid water. Now, if this discovery is discovered, it is clear that there are still large pockets of liquid water on the surface of Mars or close to it.

It is important to note that there are many warnings about this discovery. First, scientists have discovered evidence of a buried lake; that is not the same as finding a real lake. They used a tool called MARSIS on ESA's Mars Express Orbiter to study the thickest part of the southern ice sheet on Mars. The readings that they obtained between May 2012 and December 2015 reflect data of underground liquid water under ice caps in Antarctica and Greenland here on Earth. It is true that this subterranean lake exists, the water must be very brackish, a mixture of magnesium, calcium and sodium, which are all present in the Martian rocks, to remain liquid. Even so, it has very interesting implications for the possibility of life on Mars, since life exists in water bodies of a similar type on Earth.