NASA ’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ( MRO ) has discovered an impressive belowground internal-combustion engine deposit beneath Utopia Planitia on the Red Planet that is estimated to curb as much water as Lake Superior , the largest of the Great Lakes of North America .
By using the Italian - build SHARAD ( Shallow Radar ) legal instrument , the squad was capable to forecast that the deposit is between 80 and 170 meters ( 260 and 560 feet ) thick , and it lie under a layer of soil up to 10 meters ( 33 foot ) deep . The issue are published inGeophysical Research Letters .
The repository is believed to be less than 1 percent of all the water present on Mars , but its impressive features and proportional teemingness in a single localization at mid - latitudes make it an ideal target for exploration .
" This deposit is probably more accessible than most water ice on Mars , because it is at a relatively downhearted latitude and it lies in a 2-dimensional , legato area where down a space vehicle would be soft than at some of the other areas with buried icing , " said co - generator Jack Holt , from the University of Texas , Austin , in astatement .
Utopia Planitia is a basin adult than New Mexico , with a diameter of about 3,300 klick ( 2,050 miles ) . The formation of such a large reservoir at this relatively low latitude is due to the mercurial behavior of the Martian axis .
" This down payment likely formed as snowfall roll up into an ice sheet of paper mixed with debris during a period in Mars account when the planet ’s axis was more tipped than it is today , " tally Pb writer Cassie Stuurman , also from the University of Texas .
The axial tilt is currently at 25 grade , close to Earth ’s own 23.5 degrees . But unlike our planet ’s axis , the Martian axis deviate between zero and 60 level over cycles 120,000 long time long . During the Red Planet ’s orphic past times , Utopia Planitia might have been where the current North Pole is .
ALT map of Utopia Planitia with the ice deposition pock by devious line . NASA / JPL - Caltech / Univ . of Rome / ASI / PSI
“ We make love former Mars had enough smooth water on the surface for rivers and lakes . Where did it go ? Much of it lead the planet from the top of the atmosphere , ” say Leslie Tamppari , from NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) . “ But there ’s also a gravid quantity that is now underground ice , and we need to keep learn more about that . "
