The new estimates are consistent with earlier radar readings that “see” beneath the surface of the ice, which were initially interpreted as indicating the possibility of liquid water below.
A team of European scientists has announced that they have uncovered new clues about the possible presence of water in liquid form under the ice cap at south pole of Mars. The new estimates are consistent with earlier radar measurements that “see” below the surface of the ice, which were initially interpreted as indicating the possibility of liquid water below.
The researchers from Britain, France and Ireland, led by Professor Neil Arnold of the Scott Institute of Polar Research at the University of Cambridge in the UK, who made the relevant publication in the astronomy journal “Nature Astronomy”, used satellite measurements of the shape of the upper surface of the ice sheet, in order to predict, with the help of a computer model, whether a volume of water under the polar ice sheet can affect the frozen surface above.
“The combination of the new topographic data, the results of our computational model and the radar data now makes it much more likely that at least one region of subglacial liquid water exists on Mars today and that the planet must still be geothermally active in order to maintain liquid water under the ice sheet,” Arnold said.
Like Earth, Mars has thick layers of ice at both of its poles, estimated to have a total volume comparable to the Greenland ice sheet. However, unlike our planet, where water-filled channels or even large lakes can exist under the polar ice cap, until recently it was thought that under the polar ice cap of Mars there is nothing but solid ice due to the very coldness of Mars. climate.
In 2018, for the first time, data from the MARSIS radar on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express satellite orbiting the neighboring planet showed that a region at the base of the ice beneath the Martian south pole strongly reflected the radar signal, which was interpreted as an indication of the existence of liquid water under the ice.
Analysis of new data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor satellite on the topography of the South Pole’s polar cap has revealed a 10- to 15-kilometer-long surface that differs from the surrounding area and bears signs of the existence of water – perhaps even a frozen lake – below, which is reinforced by the calculations and simulations of the special computer model.
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