Salty ponds found on Mars suggest stronger prospect of life on red planet, scientists say

A network of salty ponds may be gurgling beneath theSouth Pole on Mars,alongside a large underground lake, raising the prospect of tiny, swimming Martian life.

Italian scientists reported their findings Monday, two years after identifying what they believed to be a large buried lake. They widened their coverage area by a couple hundred miles, using even more data from a radar sounder on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter.

In the latest study appearing in the journal Nature Astronomy, the scientists provide further evidence of this salty underground lake, estimated to be 20to 30 kilometresacross and buried 1.5 kilometresbeneath the icy surface.

Even more tantalizing, they've also identified three smaller bodies of water surrounding the lake. These ponds appear to be of various sizes and are separate from the main lake.

Roughly fourbillion years ago, Mars was warm and wet, like Earth. But the red planet eventually morphed into the barren, dry world it istoday.

The research team led by Roma Tre University's Sebastian Emanuel Lauro used a method similar to thoseused on Earth to detect buried lakes in the Antarctic and Canadian Arctic. They based their findings on more than 100 radar observations by Mars Express from 2010 to 2019; the spacecraft was launched in 2003.

All this potential water raises the possibility of microbial life on or inside Mars. High concentrations of salt are likely keeping the water from freezing at this frigid location, the scientists noted. The surface temperature at the South Pole is an estimated-113 degrees Cand gets gradually warmer with depth.

These bodies of water are potentially interesting biologically and the researchers wrote that"future missions to Mars should target this region."

Earlier this year,a new computer model by NASA scientists lent further support to the theory that theocean beneath the thick, icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa could be habitable.