By: Nick Gambino
NASA finally released information gathered from the defunct Mars InSight lander which powered down almost two years ago. In these new findings, the robot detected signs of large bodies of water beneath the red planet’s surface.
InSight measured seismic readings from 2018 to 2022 which helped gather vital information about the interior world of Mars. Using an onboard seismometer, it listened and recorded seismic waves from quakes (I guess they’re called marsquakes?). This is essentially how we detect oil buried deep in the ground here on Earth.
As part of this endeavor, InSight was able to detect evidence of water between 7 and 12 miles below the surface. NASA scientists believe there could be enough water hiding in the crust to fill the red planet’s oceans.
“Understanding the Martian water cycle is critical for understanding the evolution of the climate, surface and interior,” Vashan Wright, a lead researcher on the project from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said.
This could also be a clue into what happened to the water that used to flow so freely just 3 billion years ago, a time when Mars was much more similar to Earth. In other words, due to the presence of water and warmer air, it was potentially habitable. Then it went and lost its atmosphere.
They did discover frozen ice caps which explains where some of the water went hiding, but this is the first time we’ve gained a clue into where most of it may have gone. It simply went underground. Again, this is similar to Earth. Most of our water can be found below ground and so it makes sense the same would be true of any potential water on Mars.
Now, with how far down it is, it’s going to be very risky for astronauts to try and tap into it. We just don’t have the technology to do it, especially considering whatever we use we’d have to transport from Earth to the surface of the red planet.
That said, knowing where the water is, guides us to where we should look for life on Mars.
