Are we about to make a truely fantastic discovery????

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I came across an article yesterday that flouted across the media. The implications are very interesting. Water may exist on Mars. That would explain so much. Layers and layers of thought exploded in my mind. So let's begin.

Underground reservoir on Mars could fill oceans on the planet’s surface

Data from a retired NASA mission has revealed evidence of an underground reservoir of water deep beneath the surface of Mars, according to new research.

A team of scientists estimates that there may be enough water, trapped in tiny cracks and pores of rock in the middle of the Martian crust, to fill oceans on the planet’s surface. The groundwater would likely cover the entirety of Mars to a depth of 1 mile (1.6 kilometers), the study found.

So why should I become excited. Well if water exists on the planet Mars, then life might exists on the planet, and the lifeforms may have existed for an awfully long time. So long that they may have developed into an advanced civilization. So perhaps a civilization of beings still exist on Mars. If so then I know what they look like.



Life may exists today on Mars. Not on the surface of Mars but underground.

As the official WP rep on all things paranormal, I too noted this story as it involves aliens. Alas it barely caused a ripple in my interest.
the actual water (which is a considerable volume) is actually 10-20km under the Martian crust. If there is microbial life (which is plausible) its likely anerobic sulphur bacteria similar to those found subsurface miles below the earth's crust. the problem is such bacterial flora spores might well have cross contaminated mars from earth (spores from earth have been found in space and its well known space craft orbiting earth become contaminated with bacteria all the time . I doubt the water will ever be accessible from the surface of mars and even if bacteria is detected correlation does not mean causality because we don't have firm evidence of directionality here.

The water is most likely NOT in puddles, pools, and ponds deep underground.  It is most likely dispersed throughout the sub-strata, like a cup of water in a tub of sand -- present, but not practical to extract.

Colonizing Mars would be a vast money-pit.

I don't think that people will be living on Mars for a very long time.

I don't think we will ever really have colonies on Mars or other planets. We may be able to land a person there but just like the moon landing, they won't be able to stay for very long.

Could the Musk people access H20 from ice?

Water may bonded into complexes as waters of hydration, like MgSO4.nH2O (magnesium sulfate hydrate), as minerals on Mars. The waters can be removed, but it requires energy to overcome the bonds. That would not be very conducive to sustain life if it constantly has to expel energy to get water to survive. Water must be in free form for life to work well.

Actually Elon Musk did comment on these findings on Mars.



"Just a few centimeters of water ice can shield out almost all the radiation and cosmic rays that bombard the surface of the planet".

Discovery Of Liquid Water Reservoir On Mars Marks Major Scientific Breakthrough

Scientists have discovered a liquid water reservoir deep beneath Mars’ surface, revealed by data from NASA’s InSight Lander.

Scientists have unveiled a groundbreaking discovery: a reservoir of liquid water deep within the rocky crust of Mars. This finding, derived from a new analysis of data collected by NASA’s Mars InSight Lander, represents the first direct evidence of liquid water on the Red Planet.

The Mars InSight Lander, which landed on Mars in 2018, was equipped with a seismometer that recorded vibrations from the planet, known as Mars quakes, for four years. By analysing these seismic signals, scientists were able to detect signs of liquid water hidden beneath the Martian surface.

Previously, evidence of water on Mars was limited to frozen reserves at the poles and traces of vapor in the atmosphere. This discovery, detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides the first evidence of liquid water on Mars, revealing reservoirs located about 6 to 12 miles (10 to 20 kilometers) beneath the surface.

“Understanding the Martian water cycle is crucial for comprehending the planet’s climate, surface, and interior evolution,” said lead researcher Dr. Vashan Wright from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Prof. Michael Manga of the University of California, Berkeley, who participated in the research, emphasized the significance of water in shaping planetary evolution, noting that this discovery answers the longstanding question of what happened to Mars’ ancient water.

Mars’ surface, marked by ancient river channels and lake beds, suggests that liquid water once flowed abundantly. However, the planet has been a desert for around three billion years, with much of its water lost to space as its atmosphere deteriorated. Prof. Manga pointed out that, like Earth, Mars might harbor substantial amounts of underground water, which could form a global layer more than half a mile deep if distributed evenly.

The discovery also renews hopes in the search for life on Mars. “Without liquid water, you don’t have life,” said Prof. Manga. “If there are habitable environments on Mars, they may be found deep underground where this water is located.”

Sorry.
We are not "about to" shake hands with little green people on Mars (or Grey folks or whatever you expect them to be) even if they do live underground.

Life might indeed have been spawned in the early lakes and seas of Mars. But it would have been three billion years ago. Mars lost most of it water and atmosphere soon after that.

If life migrated to some water bodies beneath the crust it would likely still be at the bacteria stage.

Life appeared on Earth four billion years ago, but did not vault from the bacteria stage to the ameoba stage (prokaryote to eukaryote cells) until about 1.5 billion years ago. And even then life stayed at the single celled stage until the "Cambrian Explosion" at round 600 My ago (from the ameoba stage to the jellyfish stage) when nature invented critters big enough to be seen with the naked eye. All the interesting stuff in evolution on Earth happened in the last 13 percent of Earth's history. Humans in the last heart beat, and civilization in the last bat of an eyelash.

Given the Earth timescale it just seems highly doubtful that Mars could have evolved an equivalent species to humans given how geologically dead Mars has been for most of its existence.

Brilliant! so the excitement life is thriving under the surface may be premature then?

I also think it's overblown and wishful thinking we will discover evidence of precambrian fossils on mars. the only possibility is one of he Mars rovers or some space junk has contaminated mars and by some miracle spores have fruited just beneath the surface, but I find this implausible given the depth the remnant water is.

If there is vast quantities of free form water, the probability of finding a form of life increases. Now take in mind that may be just single cell bacteria counted as life forms. Unfortunately, said bacteria would not leave fossils when they die, so there is a limit on how long ago they could have lived to be detected.

The outer environment on Mars is different than Earth, so said life would have to have adapted to those conditions to even have a chance to exist. The question of how life would gain needed energy comes to mind. It would have to come from sources other than sunlight if it was far under the surface. Radioactivity from minerals could be one possible source, but too much would damage life, not sustain it. The energy from radiation would decrease over long periods of time, as the decay processes are followed by the parent than daughter isotopes.

To say the least, yes.

Earth is very different then many of the small planets in our solar system, such as Mars. This is because we have a large moon.

According to NASA - How did the Moon form?

Earth’s Moon was born out of destruction.

Several theories about our Moon’s formation vie for dominance, but almost all share that point in common: near the time of the solar system’s formation, about 4.5 billion years ago, something ― perhaps a single object the size of Mars, perhaps a series of objects ― crashed into the young Earth and flung enough molten and vaporized debris into space to create the Moon.

Earth’s Moon is thought to have formed in a tremendous collision.

Perhaps most importantly, the rock samples indicated that the Moon was once a part of Earth. Basaltic rocks from the Moon’s mantle have striking similarities to basaltic rocks from Earth’s mantle. The oxygen isotopes and other elements sealed into the specimens matched those of Earth rocks too precisely for the similarities to be a coincidence.