Mars: Brian Cox explains '2000 year old mystery' of planet
The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of significant interest to NASA due to its similarities to Earth. To date, no proof has been found of past or present life as we know it, however, recent advances suggest the Red Planet once flowed with water. However, the space agency has discovered vast amounts of water – stored as ice – below the surface.
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It was revealed during Amazon Prime’s “Spacefiles” how the Mars Odyssey made the discovery in 2004.
The narrator revealed: “Since life depends on it, evidence of water remains the great quest on Mars.
“Here, grooves run down the slopes of a great valley.
“They are recent clues, possibly of short-lived cascades released from an exposed layer of rock just beneath the clifftop.
Mars Odyssey has detected vast reservoirs of underground ice
“With water the objective, an American probe – Mars Odyssey – slots into Martian orbit.”
The series went on to reveal how the probe scanned the planet and found huge ice reserves.
It continued: “The mission is to scan the planet for signs of water ice beneath the surface.
“Penetrated by cosmic rays from space, the surface throws out gamma rays and neutrons and reveal subsurface elements.
“If there’s hydrogen, it’s a sign of water – water locked up as ice.
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"Sensing hydrogen and revealed in dark blue, Mars Odyssey has detected vast reservoirs of underground ice, especially around the poles.”
Since them, further evidence of water on Mars has been discovered.
Most recently, the Mars Express Orbiter, launched by the European Space Agency, scanned the area beneath the ice caps on the Planum Australe.
Scientists determined in February that the readings indicated a sub-surface lake bearing water about 12 miles wide.
The top of the lake is located one mile under the planet’s surface; how much deeper the liquid water extends remains unknown.
The ESA said in a statement: “We see Mars as a cold, dry world but plenty of evidence suggests that this was not always the case.
“Research in past years instead increasingly indicates that the planet once had thicker, denser atmosphere that was able to lock in far greater amounts of warmth and therefore facilitate and support the flow of liquid water on the surface.
“While this is no longer the case, we see clear signs of past water activity tracing across the Martian surface.”