According to scientists, a water reservoir is found deep inside Mars. Water, as we all know, is essential for the survival of all life. The results are part of a new seismic data analysis from NASA’s Mars InSight Lander, an outer space robotic explorer that landed on the planet in 2018. According to a study presented in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, future astronauts exploring Mars would face numerous challenges if they attempted to reach the water located between 7 and 12 miles (11.5 and 20 kilometres) beneath the surface. However, the discovery reveals new data about Mars’ geological history and indicates a water reservoir found deep inside Mars.

“Understanding the Martian water cycle is critical to comprehending the evolution of the climate, both surface and interior,” said lead study author Vashan Wright, an assistant professor and geophysicist at the University of California. A helpful place to begin is to identify where water reservoirs are found deep inside Mars and how much is there.

According to evidence found in ancient lakes, river channels, deltas, and water-altered rocks investigated by past NASA missions and orbiters, Mars was most likely a warmer, wetter environment billions of years ago. However, the red planet lost its atmosphere around 3 billion years ago, effectively ending the wet period on Mars. The latest discoveries indicate that water reservoirs found deep inside Mars filtered into the Martian crust.

InSight, gathered unparalleled data on the thickness of the red planet’s crust, its mantle’s temperature, the core’s depth and composition, and the atmosphere. The lander’s seismometer observed the first earthquakes on another planet, marsquakes.

While earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates shifting, moving, and grinding against one another, the Martian crust is like one large plate with faults and cracks as the planet shrinks and cools over time. As the Martian crust expanded, it split, and InSight’s seismometer detected over 1,300 marsquakes from hundreds of thousands of miles distant.

Scientists reviewing InSight data were able to investigate the speed of marsquakes as they travelled through the planet, which can be used to determine what compounds exist beneath the Martian surface.

According to Wright, the speed of seismic waves is determined by the rock’s composition, the location of cracks, and the material that fills them. The scientists entered this information into a mathematical model of rock mechanics used on Earth to locate underground oil resources and aquifers.

The findings revealed that InSight’s data corresponds most closely to a deep layer of igneous or volcanic rock containing liquid water.

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