A huge ocean is hidden deep beneath the surface of Mars

A huge ocean is hidden deep beneath the surface of Mars

Ben Turner & Live Science

Geophysicists have discovered a huge hidden ocean beneath the Martian surface, and they say it could harbor life.

Discovered using seismic data acquired by NASA’s InSight spacecraft, this massive underground reservoir contains enough liquid to cover the entire Earth for a mile, but it is too deep to be accessed by any known means.

The water is trapped in fractured rock layers 7 to 13 miles (11.5 to 20 kilometers) beneath Mars’ crust, and reaching it would require drilling techniques not yet accomplished on Earth.

Supporting science journalism

If you enjoyed this article, please support our award-winning journalism. Subscribe. By purchasing a subscription, you help ensure a future of influential stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping the world today.

But if humans could one day reach it, it could be a promising place to search for life, say the researchers, who published their findings on August 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Water is essential for life as we know it,” Michael Manga, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of the study, said in a statement. “I don’t see why[underground reservoirs]wouldn’t be habitable environments, which is certainly the case on Earth. There is life in very deep mines, there is life at the bottom of the oceans.”

“We still don’t have evidence of life on Mars, but we have identified places that could, at least in principle, support life,” Manga added.

Related: NASA’s Perseverance rover produces breathable oxygen for the first time on Mars

Dry rivers, deltas, and lake beds crisscross the Martian surface, giving scientists ample evidence that water was once abundant on the barren planet’s surface. But about 3.5 billion years ago, a sudden change in Mars’ climate stripped the surface of its water reserves.

The cause of the rapid drying is unknown, but scientists have suggested it could be a sudden loss of the planet’s magnetic field, an asteroid impact, or ancient microbial life disrupting the planet due to climate change. Figuring out the correct explanation, and figuring out where the water went, are key questions.

To look for clues about Mars’ interior, the researchers behind the new study used data collected by NASA’s InSight rover, a robotic seismology lab that studied the planet’s interior from 2018 to 2022. InSight’s sensors were able to record earthquakes of up to magnitude 5 that reverberated across the planet, triggered by meteorite impacts and volcanic activity.

Manga said the scientists fed this data into mathematical models similar to those used to find aquifers and oil deposits on Earth to map Mars’ interior and figure out “the thickness of the crust, the depth of the core, the composition of the core and even a little bit about the temperature in the mantle.”

Examination of the deep crust has revealed that it is likely composed of a jumble of fragmented igneous rocks containing enough liquid water to fill a Martian ocean, suggesting that water trickled down into the Martian crust billions of years ago rather than escaping into space.

Currently, reaching the secret ocean is well beyond humanity’s technological capabilities (the deepest hole ever drilled on Earth, the Kola Superdeep Borehole, only delves 7.6 miles into the Earth’s surface), but it’s not the only place scientists are looking for life on Mars.

In fact, Martian dust samples and even evidence of ancient life may already have been collected by the Mars rover Perseverance, which has been exploring the surface of Jezero Crater since 2021 to collect geological samples.

NASA originally planned to launch the sample return mission in 2026, but budgetary concerns pushed the date back to 2040. NASA is now soliciting proposals from private companies to speed up the mission’s timeline.

Copyright 2024 Live ScienceFuture Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.