Prospects of Subglacial Lake Existing on Mars Challenged by New Study

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Prospects of Subglacial Lake Existing on Mars Challenged by New Study
Prospects of Subglacial Lake Existing on Mars Challenged by New Study

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. One of the authors of the new research pointed out that their findings do not necessarily rule out “the possible existence of liquid water” below the Martian surface.

Scientists’ hopes of finding liquid water deposits on Mars were dealt a blow this month by a new study that was published in the Nature Astronomy journal.

A team of researchers led by Cornell University astronomer Dan Lalich postulated that a strong reflection spotted by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft under the Martian South Pole Layered Deposit (SPLD) may not be a liquid water reservoir as some scientists previously speculated.

Through performing a number of computer simulations, the team concluded that interference between geological layers, with no water involved, can produce bright reflections.

Specifically, Lalich and his colleagues ran simulations that established that two layers of carbon dioxide separated by a layer of dusty ice gave off a reflection as bright as the one detected by the ESA mission.

He did point out, however, that their findings do not disprove “the possible existence of liquid water down there.” “We just think the interference hypothesis is more consistent with other observations,” Lalich said. “I’m not sure anything short of a drill could prove either side of this debate definitively right or wrong.”

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