Discovery Says Mars Has Water On It… Possibly

So the debate of water and life on Mars is nothing new to the science community. However, everything might be put to rest with a new discovery beneath the planet’s surface. Key word: might be.

Radar signals have picked up evidence of what could potentially be a 12 mile reservoir full of glacial water beneath the south pole of the red planet. The lake is supposedly about a mile below ice and dust and could be the first sign that life does, in fact, exist on Mars.

Additionally, the lake is full of salt water, which could house some basic organisms within its pools. Italian research Robert Orosei was the first to make the discoveries and publish them in scientific journals, all thanks to the MARSIS radar from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission.

So why do I sound so skeptical? The reason being is no one has actually seen the lake. It was picked up by the same frequency of echos that are picked up when radars are used to measure bodies of water beneath Antarctic ice caps. The only indication it is actually a lake is the salt, which could make it a brine, but there will be no firm evidence until at least 2020, when another rover is sent to Mars in search of life.

However, with new direction to where the life may be located, science could be closer than ever to making the next breakthrough in outer space research.