So much water was found on Mars that it could fill an ocean on the entire planet… NASA’s big discovery

NASA has discovered a huge reservoir of water beneath the surface of Mars. It is so much that it can 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, it can form an ocean. NASA has done this calculation from the data received from InSight Lander.

There is a huge amount of water present at a depth of 11.5 to 20 kilometers below the surface of Mars. There is a possibility of the presence of small microorganisms in it. Or they may have existed earlier. Planetary scientist Vashon Wright of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and his team have done 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 at shallow depths it freezes and turns into ice. This study of Vashan and his colleagues has recently been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

InSight lander’s ability to read seismic waves revealed

Vashan’s fellow researcher Michael Manga said that we have discovered microorganisms at such depths on Earth as well. Where there is water saturation. There is no energy source either. But the Earth is so warm that life can flourish. NASA’s Insight lander landed on the surface of Mars in 2018. So that it could study its insides.

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This lander helped in mapping the inner layers of Mars with its seismic waves. Vashan said that by studying its data, he concluded that a large amount of water is stored beneath Mars. When these waves pass through any object, they change.

If all the water is taken out then the whole planet will become a big ocean

When waves pass through rocks, they behave differently. When they pass through water, they behave differently. They get to know where the cracks are. By studying these waves, Vasan and his team found out how much water is present where and at what depth. This is how large sources of water, oil and gas are discovered on earth.

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There is water everywhere in the cracks of rocks at a depth of 11.5 km to 20 km on Mars. This water has collected there after the lava cooled down. If all this water is collected, then a 1 to 2 km deep ocean can be filled on the surface of Mars. That too on the entire planet. Not just at one place.

There was a time when Mars was both hot and wet

Right now the surface of Mars is cold. It is a desert. But it used to be 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 collected inside. Early Mars had rivers and lakes of water. There may have been oceans as well. This discovery has raised the hope that with the help of water, a human colony can be built on Mars for a long time.