NASA has discovered immense reserves of water beneath the surface of Mars. This is enough to fill an ocean. There are cracks in the rocks several kilometers below the surface. They are broken i.e. fractured. There is so much liquid water between these cracks that if collected, an ocean would be formed. NASA has made this calculation from the data received from InSight Lander.
A large amount of water is present at a depth of 11.5 to 20 kilometers from the surface of Mars. In which there is also a possibility of small microorganisms being present. Or may have been before. Planetary scientist Vashan Wright and his team at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, have conducted this study.
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Vashan said that the upper layer of Mars i.e. the crust creates such an environment at such a depth that liquid water can accumulate in it. Whereas in shallow depths it solidifies into ice. This study by Vasan and his colleagues has recently been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Vashan’s fellow researcher Michael Manga said that on Earth too we have discovered microorganisms at such depths. Where there is water saturation. There is no energy source either. But the Earth is warm enough for life to flourish. NASA’s InSight lander landed on the surface of Mars in 2018. So that we can study inside it.
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This lander helped in mapping the inner layers of Mars with its seismic waves. Vashan said that after studying this data, he has concluded that there is a large amount of water stored under Mars. When these waves pass through any object, they undergo changes.
If all the water is taken out, the entire planet will become one big ocean.
When waves pass through stone, they behave differently. When it passes through water, it behaves differently. It becomes clear where the cracks are. By studying these waves, Vashan and his team found out how much water is present where and at what depth. In this manner, large sources of water, oil and gas are discovered on Earth.
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In Mars, water is present between the cracks in the rocks at a depth of 11.5 kilometers to 20 kilometers. Which is accumulated there after the lava cools down. If all this water is collected, a 1 to 2 kilometer deep ocean can be filled on the surface of Mars. That too all over the planet. Not just one place.
There was a time when Mars was both warm and wet.
Right now the surface of Mars is cold. It is desert. But sometimes it was hot and wet. But this changed 300 crore years ago. The study shows that the water present on Mars did not disappear into space. Rather, it got filtered through the crust layer and got accumulated inside. There were rivers and lakes of water on early Mars. Probably Sagar might also have been there. This discovery has raised hopes that a long-term human colony can be established on Mars with the help of water.