Mars, the red planet, continues to be one of the main objectives of the space scientistssince its characteristics could in the future house human lifeaccording to expert projections.
ANDl Smithsonian Institute of the United States launched the Mars Express mission who has been exploring the planet for 20 years, at the beginning he found deposits 2.5 kilometers deep that they had not been able to understand what they were about, now, together with the European Space Agency (ESA)they have discovered that it is ice sheets located in the Equator of Mars.
“We have re-explored the formation Medusae Fossae (MFF)using more recent radar data MARSIS by Mars Expressand we have discovered that the deposits are even thicker than we thought: up to 3.7 km thick,” said Thomas Watters of the Smithsonian Institution, lead author of both the new research and the initial study.
Huge ice deposit discovered on Mars
According to research, these deposits are so large that, if they melted, the buried ice would cover the entire planet with a layer of water between 1.5 to 2.7 meters deep, something like the Red Sea of our planet.
The existence of this large mass of ice would be a watershed in understanding how the sea has evolved. climate in Mars and will be essential to supply energy to the future manned missions.
According to 20 minutesColin Wilson, project scientist at the Mars Express and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) of the THATpoints out that this discovery provides as many answers as questions, since the size of the reserve could be fundamental and valuable for explorations, since its location far from the poles of Mars, turns the reserve into a resource essential in the futurealthough not so easy to obtain.
“Unfortunately, these MFF depots are covered in hundreds of meters of dust, which makes them inaccessible at least for the next decades. However, every piece of ice we find helps us build a better picture of where Martian water once flowed and where it can be found today,” Wilson concludes.
With information from EFE