Lakes on Mars: Radar signals deepen mystery around water on Red Planet
2 min readMars always arouses curiosity and is the nearest planet that man-made machines have ventured to investigate life outside the earth. While the search for ancient microbial life continues, new research shows the existence of ‘lake’ under the surface at the South Pole Mars.
Based on radar signals, the researchers say that many of these lakes may be in areas that are too cold for water remain in liquid condition. This study brought forward work from 2018 when the signal from the radar instrument reflected in the South Pole of the Red Planet seems to reveal the lake under the liquid surface.
Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Letters, the study stated that there were several areas throughout the South Pole in which energy reflected in the unexpected base was higher than the surface. “Previous analysis of the region shows that this stronger reflection can be caused by the presence of underground lakes,” said the newspaper.
Led by Aditya R Khuller and Jeffrey J Plauar from the Laboratory Jet Propulsion (JPL), this study was conducted by studying radar signals that were radar from the Mars of the European Space Agency expressing a caporizer that flew over the red planet. The radar signal was first discovered in the area of the South Polar Polar deposit, which has an alternating ice water coating, frozen carbon dioxide, and dust that has settled there for millions of years.
Radiant signal on the surface
The radio wave scientists from the radar Advanced Mars Orbiter for the subsurface and ionosphere instruments are heard (margsis), which maps the lower layer of the surface by peeking through the ice sheet, to the surface. Radio waves lose energy in transmissions when passing the material below the surface. They have a weaker signal when reflected back to the spacecraft.
However, in some cases, the return signal is brighter than the surface, which is interpreted to “imply the existence of liquid water, which reflects radio waves”.
Two doctoral researchers studied data that stretched more than 15 years taken from the onboard marine spacecraft instrument which revealed dozens of extra bright reflections over the range and deep depth.
Frozen time capsule
Reflection Radar provides an understanding of the area that has not been explored and the bottom layer of the surface that has a record of how the slope on the Mars axis has shifted from time to time. The change can be similar to those seen on earth when tilting ice times and a warmer period in the history of the planet.
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