Scientists Discover a 12 Mile-Wide Body of Liquid Water on Mars
Scientists determined almost definitively that a lake of liquid water exists below the surface of Mars, confirming the long-standing belief that the red planet was once home to massive oceans, and even the possibility that life thrived there. The Mars Express satellite and its MARSIS system discovered the 12.4 mile-wide lake below the planet’s surface by shooting pulses of radar near the planet’s ice caps.
Similar to pockets of subglacial water in Antarctica, the polar ice caps provide pressure and a layer of insulation from the planet’s harsh climate, lowering the melting point and keeping it from freezing. In a paper published in the journal Science, researchers noted that the lake likely consists of more of a briney sludge than a pool of liquid water, the way we’d imagine it on Earth. The temperature where it’s located is a frigid negative 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
The pool is about a mile below ground and according to one scientist involved in the study, contains “a serious quantity of water, on the order of millions of liters.”
MARSIS, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding system is only able to detect large bodies of water, meaning a multitude of smaller pockets could exist elsewhere throughout the planet, adding to the possibility that life there was once common.
Radar imaging of the body of water near Martian ice caps
The discovery is huge for the prospect of sending a manned mission and eventually colonizing the red planet. The availability of liquid water not only provides a source for humans to drink, it is also a necessary ingredient for manufacturing rocket fuel.
But for those who have been studying the strange anomalies on the planet, including the Face of Cydonia, pyramids, and seemingly artificial features, this discovery is just a drop in the bucket of a much larger disclosure regarding life on the red planet. These abnormalities have led many to believe an ancient civilization may have once existed there before its atmosphere was eventually destroyed by a nuclear winter. Whether that cataclysm was man made or due to a cosmic event has also been debated.
Researchers like Richard Hoagland and Mike Bara believe NASA is withholding current evidence of life on Mars, and the latest announcement has been made numerous times in the past, dating back to discoveries made by the Phoenix lander in 2008.
With recent evidence that NASA accidentally destroyed organic matter collected by the Viking probes 40 years ago, it wouldn’t be a surprise to discover that it has already found evidence of life there.
Watch this Conscious Media interview in which Regina Meredith discusses the possibility of life on Mars with Richard C. Hoagland:
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Scientists Say They've Discovered Martian Life in Form of Fungi
The days of scientists dismissing all signs of life on the Martian surface as pareidolia or just a trick of shadows may be over, as a statistically significant majority of 70 scientists agree they’ve identified evidence of life on the red planet.
According to a paper published in the Journal of Astrobiology, as well as the consortium of believing scientists, the Mars Curiosity Rover seems to have photographed evidence of life on Mars in the form of algae, lichens, and fungi.
In addition to a number of pictures showing these prokaryotes and eukaryotes seeming to thrive on the surface of Martian rocks, other photos depict what appear to be fungi growing on the rover itself.
The evidence supports a number of hypotheses that these types of “puff-balls,” or fungal organisms would be able to survive the Martian atmosphere, despite exposure to intense space radiation and harsh atmospheric conditions.
Though this information is just now being released to the public, other scientists are claiming they identified equaling compelling evidence decades ago detected by the 1976 Viking mission, yet for some reason NASA still didn’t equip subsequent missions with the proper tools to test for life. And despite the substantial photographic evidence of this life, the only way to truly prove whether it’s living is to sample it and send it back to Earth for testing.
“There are no geological or other abiogenic forces on Earth which can produce sedimentary structures, by the hundreds, which have mushroom shapes, stems, stalks, and shed what looks like spores on the surrounding surface,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Regina Dass of the Department of Microbiology at India’s School of Life Sciences. “In fact, fifteen specimens were photographed by NASA growing out of the ground in just three days!”
Dass and team also argued that there are fluctuations in methane levels on the ground as well as in the Martian atmosphere that vary between seasons, much like methane fluctuations seen on Earth. 90 percent of that methane is the direct result of living organisms.
NASA denies the assertion that these photos are proof of living organisms, calling into question the validity of the journal making the claims. Instead the administration says the photos simply depict minerals like hematite.
But if this scientific consortium is correct and there are basic life forms able to survive Mars’ hostile atmosphere, how they ended up on the red planet is a bit of a mystery.
Considering that certain cyanobacteria and fungi have been observed to survive the vacuum of space and cosmic radiation, some believe these microorganisms on Mars may have come from Earth, either blasted from meteorite impacts or having caught a ride with one of the rovers.
And then there’s also the other hypothesis that says they could be remnants of an ancient civilization that once resided on Mars, before some cataclysmic event turned the planet into the inhospitable rock it is today. At least that’s what remote viewers working for the CIA claim they saw.
For more on the potential habitability of Mars watch Dr. Robert Zubrin on this episode of Beyond Belief:
