'Significant' Amounts of Water , Found Under Mars' Surface , in Historic Discovery.<br />‘Newsweek’ reports that the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Roscosmos agency,<br />has discovered "significant amounts" of water on Mars. .<br />In a December 15 announcement, the ESA <br />said that water was found hidden under the <br />surface of Mars' Valles Marineris canyon system. .<br />The area is reportedly ten times the length <br />and five times the depth of the Grand Canyon. .<br />(The Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron <br />Detector neutron telescope) revealed <br />an area with an unusually large <br />amount of hydrogen in the colossal <br />Valles Marineris canyon system:, Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, via 'Newsweek'.<br />... assuming the hydrogen we see is bound <br />into water molecules, as much as 40% <br />of the near-surface material in this <br />region appears to be water, Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, via 'Newsweek'.<br />According to the ESA, while water was previously discovered on Mars, most of it was found in the planet's frozen polar regions as ice. .<br />The recent finding reportedly signifies <br />that the planet may contain larger <br />water deposits covered by dust. .<br />With TGO we can look down to one meter below this dusty layer and see what's really going on below Mars' surface—and, crucially, locate water-rich 'oases' that couldn't be detected with previous instruments, Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, via 'Newsweek'.<br />Knowing more about how and where water exists on present-day Mars is essential to understand what happened to Mars' once-abundant water, .., Colin Wilson, ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter <br />project scientist, via 'Newsweek'.<br />... and helps our search for habitable <br />environments, possible signs <br />of past life, and organic materials <br />from Mars' earliest days, Colin Wilson, ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter <br />project scientist, via 'Newsweek'
