The discovery of glaciers is melting under the layer of dust on the surface of Mars

Recently, scientists have discovered many glaciers "hidden" under the thick layer of sand on the surface of Mars. This is said to be the source of water reserves exist on the red planet.

Glaciers are melting under the sand on the surface of Mars

Discovery News reports the latest science from Geophysical Research Letters, scientists have discovered the existence of glaciers (glaciers) lying beneath the dust on the Martian surface, containing enough water to to cover the red planet with more than 1 meter thick ice.

Nanna Bjørnholt Karlsson, a researcher at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, said: "We estimate ice reserves in glaciers equivalent to more than 150 billion cubic meters of water - this amount can cover the entire Mars surface with a band of about 1.1 meters thick ".

Detection of thick ice under the surface of Mars

Previous radar images show that thousands of glaciers are buried beneath the Martian surface at the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere's red hemisphere . The data has been included in the computer model to measure ice flow to determine the size of glaciers, from which the estimated amount of water exists on the surface of Mars.

Nanna Bjørnholt Karlsson added: " We have been tracking radar devices for the past 10 years to consider the thickness and the state of transformation of glaciers. The results show that a river The ice was created by the slow melting of a large piece of ice on the surface of Mars, and we then compared this to the characteristics of the glacier on Earth to calculate whether ice flow exists on the planet. how much red is'.

Glaciers are located in the perimeter around Mars , between latitudes 30 and 50, which is equivalent to the position south of Denmark on Earth and found on both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Glaciers under the layer of dust are dense below the surface of Mars, the source of water reserves on the red planet

This finding could be an important clue to knowing the active states of water on Mars . The red planet, which now only sees dry, cold deserts, is known to have had oceans and lakes and used to be a suitable habitat for microorganisms.

Karlsson said: " The layers of ice at intermediate latitudes are the source of the currents on Mars's surface." Scientists suspect the thick layer of dust on the surface of Mars covered the ice from evaporating water into space.