SCIENCE Magazine reports the discovery of a pretty darn good-sized body of at least semi-liquid water under the Martian south polar region. Life at last?! Hold your exo-horses, space cadets….
Now, no doubt this qualifies as more shiny fresh, fascinating data beaming in from the various robots circling around, driving on, digging into, snapping selfies from the surface of Mars. And what we might have here is a lake. A 12-mile-plus wide body of possibly liquid water under the planet’s south pole. So, walleye pike and jellyfish competing for resources just below the surface? Prolly not quite time to pop the Dom Perignon yet. The lake is over 100 degrees F below zero. On Earth, our toasty molten core keeps sub-surface polar ice downright hot-tub warm in comparison. On Mars? A dead-cold core, so no heating from that direction. But salts, you say! Salt does lower the freezing temp of water. Most likely salt in a Martian lake? Perchlorates. So, toxic to life (as we know it, at least.) But but! The pressure of the overlying ice, you say! Wellllll – the low grav on Mars and thinness of the ice (less than a mile) mean not enough pressure to help much. So, the lake is likely not open water, but a sludge of soil-suspension with maybe poisonous chemical mix at a temp that’s not remotely life-friendly. Could there STILL be life? Sure. Not a “slam dunk” at all, as one JPL researcher said by way of “keep calm and carry on probing.” But, it IS a very cool discovery and who knows? Maybe there are other subterranean Martian bodies of water brimming with Tiger shrimp and sentient squid! Or maybe Martians have evolved life forms beyond our humble Earther imaginations. Stay tuned. And watch the skies!
Here’s a graphic of the basic findings as posted by the planetary mavins at the ESA. Get a better look at whole dealeo over at the European Space Agency.
