Study: Deep inside Mars, there may be large amounts of liquid water

A new study analyzing seismic waves on Mars detected by NASA's insight unmanned probe suggests that there is a region of pores and fractures filled with liquid water deep inside the planet.

Earthquakes and meteorite impacts on Mars are known to produce seismic waves that can help map the planet's internal structure.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, the area is believed to be between 11km and 20km below the surface of Mars and contains a large amount of liquid water, far exceeding the amount of water previously thought to have existed on the surface of Mars. Although these groundwater resources are too deep to be mined, this reservoir may be a "refuge" for life.

One of the mathematical models the researchers used in their analysis is identical to those used to analyze Earth's underground aquifers and oil fields; The paper was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The identification of a large reservoir of liquid water provides clues about Mars' past, the researchers said, and since life exists in deep mines and on the ocean floor on Earth, life may also exist in deep underground water reservoirs on Mars.

There is plenty of evidence, such as river channels, deltas and lake deposits, to support the hypothesis that liquid water once flowed on the surface of Mars, but this wet period ended when the planet lost its atmosphere more than 3 billion years ago.

So far, humans have sent many probes to Mars to try to figure out what happened to all that liquid water in the past. The new study shows that most of the water on Mars did not escape into space, but seeped into the planet's crust.

The insight unmanned probe landed on the surface of Mars in 2018 carrying a seismometer, the first instrument to detect a Martian earthquake.

On December 21, 2022, NASA announced that INSIGHT was officially ending its mission after more than four years of scientific exploration of Mars. Between 2018 and 2022, instruments detected hundreds of Mars quakes. By analyzing the seismic data collected by INSIGHT, researchers have learned more about the thickness of Mars' crust, the depth and composition of its core, and even some temperature information within the mantle.