A new study suggests that there may be enough water beneath the surface of Mars to form a global ocean.
Scientists published their findings Monday based on seismic measurements recorded by NASA’s Mars rover, InSight, which detected more than 1,300 Martian quakes before it was shut down two years ago.
Water is thought to be hidden in underground rock cracks and could exist seven to 12 miles beneath the Martian crust.
Water could have seeped up from the surface billions of years ago, when Mars had rivers, lakes and possibly even oceans, Vashan Wright, lead scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, told The Associated Press.
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Mars as seen from NASA’s InSight rover (NASA/Twitter)
But Wright said that even if there may be water beneath Mars’ crust, that doesn’t necessarily mean life exists there.
“Rather, our findings imply that a habitable environment may exist,” he told The Associated Press in an email.
Wright’s team used computer models and InSight data, including earthquake speeds, to determine that groundwater was the most likely explanation.
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MAVEN Artist’s Concept Orbiting Mars: This illustration shows the MAVEN spacecraft and the edge of Mars. (Credit: NASA/GSFC)
The team’s findings were published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Wright said if InSight’s location near the Martian equator is similar to the rest of the planet, there should be enough water about a mile underground to fill the entire planet’s oceans.
Scientists will need to find a way to drill deep enough into the planet’s crust to confirm the presence of life and water.
Large amounts of water are thought to have been present on the Martian surface more than 3 billion years ago, but scientists hypothesize that it may have flowed underground or been lost into space.
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It is also believed that the planet’s atmosphere became thinner, causing all water to disappear, turning it into a dry, dusty world.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.