But no water on the red planet? Mars lakes, according to NASA, probably made of clay

In 2018, Italian researchers caused excitement after they found underground lakes made of water on Mars. After detailed investigations, NASA now waves it away.

So far it has been assumed that there are larger ones under the south polar cap of Mars Could give amounts of water. A corresponding discovery by a research team led by Roberto Orosei from the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica caused a stir in the global research community three years ago. Now three studies published in the past few weeks cast doubt on the idea of ​​large amounts of water beneath the surface of Mars. The Mars lakes could therefore consist of clay instead of water.

While water ice occurs both on the poles and under the surface of the Red Planet, it is liquid Water – at least on the surface of Mars – not possible. Because in the extremely thin atmosphere it would immediately turn into steam, as NASA writes. The report about water-containing Mars lakes, which are said to be located under the ice layer of the South Pole, was correspondingly sensational. Some scientists even saw possible habitats for microbes: inside the lakes.

Now the disillusionment: “After a closer examination of the data and experiments in a cold laboratory on Earth, some researchers believe that the signals may be from sound and not from water caused ”, it says on the part of Nasa. Scientists, including Jeffrey Plaut from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, concluded that the alleged Mars lakes were too close to the surface. There the water could not stay liquid, even if it was very salty – which would lower the freezing temperature.

Isaac Smith from York University in Toronto and Carver Bierson from Arizona State University found in frozen clay that so-called smectites occur on Mars, a possible explanation for the lake formations previously interpreted as containing water. Nasa pointed out, however, that these attempts at explanation are indeed more logical theories than the water idea. But you will only have certainty if you land on Mars yourself and dig your way through the layer of water ice on the South Pole.

It was only in May that researchers discovered possible water ice in a glacier formation under the Martian surface in the lowland Arcadia Planitia. Here, too, however, the following applies: Only a future Mars mission to this area can clarify the situation. According to a NASA study, 30 to 99 percent of the water on Mars is said to be bound in minerals in the planet’s crust.

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