{"id":25531,"date":"2022-09-20T11:03:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T10:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=25531"},"modified":"2022-09-20T11:03:35","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T10:03:35","slug":"thousands-of-undiscovered-ancient-lakes-may-have-supported-water-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/thousands-of-undiscovered-ancient-lakes-may-have-supported-water-on-mars\/25531\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of undiscovered ancient lakes may have supported water on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"
The team performed a meta-analysis of multiple years of satellite data that shows evidence of lakes on Mars, finding scientists may have significantly underestimated the number of Martian lakes that once existed. The findings published in Nature Astronomy may enhance our understanding of water on Mars and potential ancient life<\/a> on the red planet.<\/p>\n Lakes are bodies of water supplemented by rainfall, snowmelt, rivers, and groundwater and are responsible for much of the life we see on Earth. Although today, Mars is a frozen desert, billions of years ago, scientists believe it was once home to ancient lakes. Large-scale water on Mars may have once supported ancient life.<\/p>\n Joseph Michalski, a geologist in the Department of Earth Sciences at HKU, commented: \u201cWe know of approximately 500 ancient lakes deposited on Mars, but nearly all the lakes we know about are larger than 100 km2<\/sup>. But on Earth, 70% of the lakes are smaller than this size, occurring in cold environments where glaciers have retreated. These small-sized lakes are difficult to identify on Mars by satellite remote sensing, but many small lakes probably did exist. It is likely that at least 70% of Martian lakes have yet to be discovered.\u201d<\/p>\n Scientists monitor these small lakes on Earth to understand climate change, meaning the missing small lakes on Mars could contain vital information about the red planet\u2019s past climates. The new research suggests that these ancient Martian lakes existed around 3,500 to 4,000 million years ago, but each may have only lasted for around 10,000 to 100,000 years. The findings also infer that Mars was predominantly cold and dry, warming episodically for short periods.<\/p>\nThe prevalence of ancient Martian lakes<\/h3>\n