What’s all this then? Just a day – mere hours even – after we publish an article about all the cool and extremely real alien shit that has happened over the past few months, scientists go right ahead and announce that they’ve found a subterranean lake on Mars. Liquid water and everything.
After years of research, scientists have confirmed that liquid water exists on Mars. This could allow humans to further explore the red planet. https://t.co/22Cygnq7Lh pic.twitter.com/8EHaYL9Zp8
— CNN (@CNN) July 25, 2018
Researchers believe that the lake sits under the south polar ice cap, and is about 20km across. Previous research has suggested that there may be intermittent water flow on the surface of the red planet, but this is the first time we’ve had evidence of a persistent body of water.
The discovery was made by the European Space Agency‘s Mars Express orbiter, using an onboard radar instrument called Marsis.
“It’s probably not a very large lake,” said Professor Roberto Orosei from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, who seems to be underselling the fact that there is water on Mars, and therefore a 100% chance of there being little green fellas swimming in it.
Orosei confirmed that this is a proper body of water, which is at least a metre deep. A real lake on Mars, or under it if you prefer.
“This really qualifies this as a body of water,” he said. “A lake, not some kind of meltwater filling some space between rock and ice, as happens in certain glaciers on Earth.”
Okay, so what does this actually mean in terms of whether there’s life on Mars? Basically nothing, at this point. But whereas it has been fairly conclusively established that the surface of Mars simply too inhospitable for life, it’s now feasible that it might exist below the surface.
However, it’s pretty likely that the water is salty as hell to remain liquid at low temperatures, which is not particularly conducive to the existence of life
“It’s plausible that the water may be an extremely cold, concentrated brine, which would be pretty challenging for life,” Dr Claire Cousins, an astrobiologist from the University of St Andrews, told the BBC.
And by ‘might exist’, I mean absolutely. 100% there are aliens on inflatable tubes just floating around in that lake smoking huge blunts and having a sick one. I’ve seen pictures online. I know it to be true. Aliens: real.
