The likelihood of lakes of liquid water hidden under Mars' southern polar ice cap is receding before our very eyes.
Grima and his colleagues took a different approach. They laid a virtual ice sheet over the entire radar globe of Mars, comprising three years' of MARSIS data, showing what the red planet looks like through 1.4 kilometers of frozen water.
Then, they looked for reflective patches similar to those interpreted as water – and found them, scattered across all latitudes. Where they could, the researchers then mapped these patches against the known geology of Mars. The patches very neatly matched with volcanic terrain.Just as frozen clay is highly radar-reflective here on Earth, so too is volcanic rock that is rich in metal such as iron.
But the research offers new avenues for exploration, too. Namely, they can help us better understand the history of water on Mars. "I think the beauty of Grima's finding is that while it knocks down the idea there might be liquid water under the planet's south pole today, it also gives us really precise places to go look for evidence of ancient lakes and riverbeds and test hypotheses about the wider drying out of Mars' climate over billions of years,"The two scientists are now going to be working on mission proposals to use radar-based remote sensing to try and locate water on Mars, both pertaining to...
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