Red Planet Secret Revealed: Scientists Discover a Significant Amount of Water Inside Mars’ Grand Canyon

Scientists recently discovered a world-historic find on Mars after it spotted a substantial amount of water hiding inside Valles Marineris of the Red Planet. According to a recent European Space Agency press release, it is Mars version of the "Grand Canyon" system.

Up to 40 percent of material close to the canyon's surface could comprise water molecules. This newly found volume of water is hiding beneath the surface of the Red Planet and was discovered by the Trace Gas Orbiter, a mission in its initial phase under the guidance of the ESA-Roscosmos project called ExoMars.

Signs of Water on Mars

The signs of water on Mars was picked up by the Fine Revolution Epithermal Neutron Detector (FREND) instrument of the orbiter, designed to survey the landscape of the red planet and map the concentration of hydrogen that's hiding in the soil of the planet.

As high-energy cosmic rays plunges into the surface, the soil emits neutrons. When the ground emits lesser neutrons than dry soil, the scientists will examine the soil's water content hidden underneath its ancient surface.

According to Space Research Institute's lead investigator Igor Mitrofanov, at the Russian Academy of Science, FREND showed a site with an extraordinarily large hydrogen amount in the colossal Valles Marineris canyon system, supposing the hydrogen seen is bound into water molecules, as much as 40 percent of the near-surface material in this site "appears to be water."

Huge Water Reservoir

Scientists have already detected water on the Red Planet although most earlier discoveries found the substance critical to life as it is known to be close to the poles of Mars, existing as ice.

Only very tiny pockets of water appeared at lower latitudes, which was a large downer since future astronauts on the Red Planet will need a lot of water. There are better predictions for settling Mars at lower latitudes.

However, to date, with what appears like a comparative richness of water in Valles Marineris, a major step has been taken toward the establishment of a reliable source of water in the nearest terrestrial world.

In an announcement posted on Twitter, ExoMars said the reservoir is huge, not too deep beneath the ground, and could be easily useable for future discoverers.

While this may seem great news, a separate Interesting Engineering report said, but for SpaceX's Elon Musk, it's too soon to pack up "his bags and fly to the site," since there's still a lot of work left to attend to.

Potentially a Mixture of Solid and Liquid

Coming with this announcement is a study published in the Icarus journal, presenting that neutron detection does not differentiate between ice and water molecules. Meaning, geochemists should enter the scientific argument to divulge more details.

However, the canyon's several features, including its topology, have resulted in the researchers speculating that water is solid ice form or a mixture of solid and liquid.

Related information about colonizing Mars is shown on Interesting Engineering's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Mars in Science Times.