Based on seismic data from NASA’s InSight lander, geophysicists have discovered a significant underground ocean on Mars that could potentially support life. Containing enough liquid water to cover the entire planet with a one mile deep sea, this massive reservoir exists 11.5 up to 20 km below the Martian’s surface. Nevertheless, reaching this ocean is not easy because of its considerable depth and geological obstacles that would require advanced drilling technology that has not been invented yet.
This suggests that water was trapped under a layer of shattered rocks rather than escaping into space as Mars changed its climate some 3.5 billion years ago according to research. The above ground lake is an ideal place for future exploration even though there are no signs of any life on Mars as Michael Manga, who led the study emphasized.
InSight’s data was employed to map the red planet’s insides, which is a way of understanding its crust and reservoirs for water. At the same time, these researchers suggested that the Martian crust contains fractured igneous rocks with considerable amounts of water, thereby opposing early notions that there was no more water. However, because of technological advancements in our era, this pool remains inaccessible; nevertheless, rovers like Perseverance go on to search for traces of ancient life by collecting rock samples for geologists while sampling missions planned to recover samples are delayed until 2040 due to lack of funding.
