An underground lake was found on Mars

[Spaceception]

Scientists have announced an underground "lake" of liquid water 20 km across, and 1.5 km below the surface. It's not clear if life could arise, as the water is very cold, briny, and full of salts made of things like sodium and calcium. It was found by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument on the Mars Express spacecraft.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44952710

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2018/07/24/science.aau1829

This is really exciting regardless

Edited July 25, 2018 by Spaceception

[Bill Phil]

Neat. 

It seems like a lot of bodies have liquid underground.

[Spaceception]

2 minutes ago, Bill Phil said:

Neat. 

It seems like a lot of bodies have liquid underground.

And life may find a way But even if it doesn't have life, it'd be great to study as an edge case for the limits of water-based biology.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Spaceception

[YNM]

1 hour ago, Spaceception said:

"lake"

So, groundwater ?

[sevenperforce]

I came over just to post this.

Friggin' awesome.

[MinimumSky5]

My personal odds of finding life on Mars just went up from ~25% to a good 95%,because we know that life can survive in subglacial lakes here on Earth (Lake Vostok, as an example), even when it seemingly lacks a source of energy. 

[cubinator]

40 minutes ago, YNM said:

So, groundwater ?

No, apparently the radar data is not indicative of just dirt with water in the gaps. We're talking a proper body of water, like the kind something could swim around in.

[NSEP]

33 minutes ago, MinimumSky5 said:

My personal odds of finding life on Mars just went up from ~25% to a good 95%,because we know that life can survive in subglacial lakes here on Earth (Lake Vostok, as an example), even when it seemingly lacks a source of energy. 

The chance of native life existing on Mars sure got higher, but one important thing to keep in mind is just that life can survive in a place, doesn't also mean it could've formed there.

I can ride my bicycle in the desert for sure, but that doesn't mean i could've built it from the ground up. Same goes for life, in order for life to exist you need very special conditions. You can't make lifeforms that can survive harsh conditions right away, kind of like how people didn't invent the motorcycle straight away and instead evolved its design from the bicycle or portable engine.

This isn't that much of a problem on Mars, because in the past, Mars was likely quite simulair to Earth, and life could've probably formed during that time and evolved to survive in the salty underground lakes.

Edited July 25, 2018 by NSEP

[cubinator]

32 minutes ago, MinimumSky5 said:

My personal odds of finding life on Mars just went up from ~25% to a good 95%,because we know that life can survive in subglacial lakes here on Earth (Lake Vostok, as an example), even when it seemingly lacks a source of energy. 

Apparently there are microbes that can metabolize off salts. This is extremely exciting.

[NSEP]

2 minutes ago, cubinator said:

No, apparently the radar data is not indicative of just dirt with water in the gaps. We're talking a proper body of water, like the kind something could swim around in.

How does that hold up? Wouldn't that just collapse?

Im curious.

But im not going to lie, my personal odds of life on Mars went WAAYY through the roof with this discovery.

[cubinator]

1 minute ago, NSEP said:

The chance of native life existing on Mars sure got higher, but one important thing to keep in mind is just that life can survive in a place, doesn't also mean it could've formed there.

I can ride my bicycle in the desert for sure, but that doesn't mean i could've built it from the ground up. Same goes for life, in order for life to exist you need very special conditions. You can't make lifeforms that can survive harsh conditions right away, kind of like how people didn't invent the motorcycle straight away and instead evolved its design from the bicycle or portable engine.

This isn't that much of a problem on Mars, because in the past, Mars was likely quite simulair to Earth, and life could've probably formed during that time and evolved to survive in the salty underground lakes.

There's also a lot of evidence that if multiple planets were habitable life would be able to spread between those planets, so I think a common ancestor between Earth halophiles and potential Mars ones is quite possible.

2 minutes ago, NSEP said:

How does that hold up? Wouldn't that just collapse?

Im curious.

It's not very deep, like maybe a couple of meters. And we have lakes like that on Earth too, and they manage to hold up.

[Cassel]

Guys it is 1.5km underground, it is super deep even for Earth :-)

[MinimumSky5]

Lake Vostok is buried beneath 4Km of ice in Antarctica, but we have collected living bacteria from it. 

[Bill Phil]

We should call it Lake Voskhod.

[Cassel]

53 minutes ago, MinimumSky5 said:

Lake Vostok is buried beneath 4Km of ice in Antarctica, but we have collected living bacteria from it. 

Using what kind of equipment?

 

[cubinator]

1 hour ago, Cassel said:

Using what kind of equipment?

 

Ice core sampling drills, I presume. Maybe a bucket on a rope?

[andrewas]

3 hours ago, NSEP said:

How does that hold up? Wouldn't that just collapse?

Im curious.

But im not going to lie, my personal odds of life on Mars went WAAYY through the roof with this discovery.

Water is in compressible, so a water layer under a water ice cap can support the weight. 

Edited July 25, 2018 by andrewas

[MinimumSky5]

They used drills initially, to get samples of lake water that had frozen onto the underside of the glacier, but then they used high pressure, hot water mixed with ammonia and kerosene (to form an antifreeze agent) to melt down into the lake itself. 

[kerbiloid]

BFS must be equipped with long, long ropes. And buckets.

Probably, a whole drum of cable.

Edited July 26, 2018 by kerbiloid

[Scotius]

First of (hopefully many) extraterrestial targets for The Boring Company

[Wjolcz]

16 hours ago, MinimumSky5 said:

My personal odds of finding life on Mars just went up from ~25% to a good 95%,because we know that life can survive in subglacial lakes here on Earth (Lake Vostok, as an example), even when it seemingly lacks a source of energy. 

Same. However, as some already have said, I think small scale (within a solar system) panspermia is very much possible. Earth got likely bombarded right around when life was forming so it wouldn't surprise me if life on Mars and Europa, and possibly other bodies, was similar to what we have on Earth or at least share a common ancestor. Either that or there are only so many ways life can arise. After all, everything that is alive now on Earth comes fron LUCA.

But then maybe it doesn't and these progenotes just swapped RNA a lot.

Anywho... Hopefully NASA and other space agencies get cash boosts for more research. I wouldn't mind knowing the answer during my lifetime.

Edited July 26, 2018 by Wjolcz

[kerbiloid]

Now they should be making their Martian tunnels waterproof.

P.S.
And potato cellars.

Edited July 26, 2018 by kerbiloid

[YNM]

18 hours ago, cubinator said:

apparently the radar data is not indicative of just dirt with water in the gaps. We're talking a proper body of water, like the kind something could swim around in.

So, something like karst ? Or like the crystal caves ? Or perhaps a massive geode ?

In any case, this sounds like a really intriguing news.

[NSEP]