A new study conducted by researchers from Italy and the Netherlands has said that underground ancient lake systems on Mars is not a myth anymore. Scientists made this conclusion after analyzing images of craters taken by European and American space.
The research report published in the journal Geophysical Research: Planets revealed that the new finding is confirming earlier models and smaller-scale studies that speculated the presence of underground lakes on Mars that might be connected to each other.
The discovery adds up the heat to the possibility that the Red Planet might have similar conditions like the earth in the past where alien life might have harboured. It should be noted that patches of ice discovered on Mars in the past also points to the fact that Mars was once a watery world.
"Early Mars was a watery world, but as the planet's climate changed this water retreated below the surface to form pools and 'groundwater. We traced this water in our study, as its scale and role is a matter of debate, and we found the first geological evidence of a planet-wide groundwater system on Mar," said Francesco Salese, the lead author of the study in a recent statement.
As per researchers who took part in this study, water was very much necessary to create pool-shaped valleys and fan-shaped sediment deposits, especially in the Northern hemisphere on the planet. Researchers also spotted signs of minerals like clay, and these deposits will be formed only after long exposure to water.
Upcoming missions of both NASA and ESA will be primarily concentrating on finding evidence of alien life that may have once thrived in Mars, and the new finding will surely catalyze the journey of humans to find extraterrestrials.
A few days back, Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator had also revealed that the upcoming Mars missions by the United States space agency may find alien life on Red Planet.
