This image may not be used to state or imply ESA endorsement of any company or product Mars Express radar images of evidence for liquid water under Ma
This image may not be used to state or imply ESA endorsement of any company or product Mars Express radar images of evidence for liquid water under Mars' south polar cap. The image at left shows the 200 kilometre (km) area of the south pole surveyed by the spacecraft. At centre are the ground-penetrating radar footprints from the area. They are colour-coded, with the strongest radar echoes coloured blue. It is this blue area, roughly 20 kilometres across, that is believed to be the liquid water. A subsurface radar profile of the area is at right, again with the strongest radar echoes being blue. This is the first evidence for a stable body of water on the planet at the present time. Its temperature is predicted to be -68 Celsius, but the water could remain liquid due to high pressure and dissolved salts. Liquid water holds the possibility of microbial life. The observations were made between 2012 and 2015 by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding Instrument (MARSIS) on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. The background image for the central image is from the Thermal Imaging System on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft.
Size: 5333px × 3333px
Photo credit: © NASA/Viking/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University/ESA/NASA/JPL/ASI/Univ. Rome; R. Orosei et al 2018/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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