Before 'death', NASA robot detected shock on Mars

A new study from the US analyzed the data set left behind by NASA's InSight robot and discovered something unbelievable on Mars: enough water to fill a global ocean.

According to a paper published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this water mass still exists in a liquid state below the planet's surface.

Dr. Vashan Wright from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego (USA), co-author, said that this amount of water is located only 11.5-20 km below the surface of Mars.

Robot - NASA's InSight lander under construction - (Photo: NASA).

Thus, it creates a wet world below the planet's surface, capable of providing favorable conditions for sustaining microbial life, past or present.

'On Earth, we find bacterial life deep underground, where rocks are saturated with water and have energy sources,' explained co-author Michael Manga from the University of California at Berkeley.

The amount of groundwater was detected from seismic data collected by InSight. Seismic waves will vary depending on the composition of the rock, cracks, or other materials interspersed with the rock.

It is not a large underground water reservoir like what we usually see on Earth, but flows through fractured magma rocks, formed during the cooling and solidification of these rocks in the planet's crust.

If all this water were poured onto the surface of Mars, it would be enough to form a global super ocean with a depth of 1-2 km.

Although strange, finding water on Mars is not unreasonable.

According to long-supported theories by NASA, in contrast to the cold, arid red planet it is today, early Mars - 3 billion years ago or more - was once a warm, wet world with rivers, lakes and seas like Earth.

Where Mars' water went remains a mystery . There is some evidence that atmospheric fluctuations caused water to escape into space.

However, this new research suggests some of that ancient water actually seeped deep below the planet's surface, preserving a world that is still suitable for life.

According to Reuters, this discovery brings great news because NASA and many other space agencies have ambitions to build a base on Mars.

Therefore, besides bringing hope for extraterrestrial life, the local water source then becomes a resource more valuable than gold to serve the "invasion" of humans.

InSight is a robotic lander whose primary mission is to collect seismic data on Mars.

Unlike rovers like Curiosity or Perseverance that can move freely and run on nuclear energy, InSight stays in one place and runs on solar energy.

So, although the instruments were not damaged, the harsh dust storms on Mars attacked InSight and covered it with a thick layer of dust, obscuring the panels. NASA was forced to declare the end of this warrior's mission in December 2022, after 4 years of operation.