Water on Mars may be lurking beneath or even above the planet’s surface.
NASA/JPL/USGS
Mars isn’t as dry as it seems. Billions of years ago, oceans and rivers of liquid water rippled across its surface, but now it appears that all of that liquid has disappeared, leaving behind a dusty barren landscape. But as we explore Mars with probes, landers, rovers, and even distant telescopic images, more and more traces of water are popping up.
Each hint fascinates researchers about how important water is to life and how it could aid future exploration. Water has now been found in various forms all over Mars. Here are five places where water has been found.
1. Buried underground
The InSight lander, visualized here, recently discovered new potential water reservoirs on Mars.
NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology
Just beneath Mars’ dry surface lies an icy wonderland. These deposits are insulated by an overlying layer of dust, but erosion or meteorite impacts could expose them to the watchful eye of Mars orbiters. A single icy deposit recently identified using data from the Mars Express spacecraft appears to contain enough water to cover the entire Martian surface with an ocean 1.5 to 2.7 meters deep.
It’s not just ice buried under the orange sand. There’s a controversial theory that there’s a huge lake beneath Earth’s Antarctic pole. It could just be wet silt or volcanic rock. But… New Research Using data from the InSight lander, researchers have uncovered the possibility of another reservoir of water near the Martian equator. InSight found this water, buried 11.5 to 20 kilometers underground, by sensing Martian earthquakes and measuring the speed at which seismic waves travel. The results revealed that the rocks through which the earthquakes travel appear to be saturated with water.
2. Frost the pole
Frost in a crater on the North Plains of Mars
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Reaching buried water on Mars will be difficult. For future explorers, the more promising reservoirs are probably exposed on the surface. Mars has ice caps at both poles, just like Earth’s, and we’ve known about them for decades. Many of Mars’ craters also contain small ice sheets inside them, the only places on the Martian surface cold enough to hold ice.
However, at higher latitudes on Mars, the air is cooler and more moist, and temporary frosts can occur. On frigid Martian mornings, volcano peaks are also covered in frost, likely caused by water vapor in the atmosphere freezing.
3. Floating in the atmosphere
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