New Study Suggests , Discovery of Liquid Water on Mars , May Have Been an Illusion.<br />According to a new study, liquid water <br />previously discovered beneath the Martian <br />south pole may have just been an illusion. .<br />'The Independent' reports that a new study <br />suggests that bright reflections at the pole match <br />those of volcanic plains found across Mars. .<br />Reserchers say that the current temperature <br />and pressure of the red planet makes the <br />presence of stable liquid water unlikely. .<br />Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin <br />suggest volcanic rock buried under ice <br />was mistaken for large bodies of water. .<br />For water to be sustained this close <br />to the surface, you need both a very <br />salty environment and a strong, locally <br />generated heat source, but that doesn’t <br />match what we know of this region, Cyril Grima, Lead author and planetary scientist at the University <br />of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG),via 'The Independent'.<br />According to 'The Independent,' lava flows rich in iron on Earth and leaves behind similar <br />rocks that produce similar reflections. .<br />The study, published in the journal <br />Geophysical Research Letters, <br />is based on three years of data from Marsis.<br />Marsis is a radar instrument that <br />was launched aboard the European <br />Space Agency’s Mars Express in 2005.<br />'The Independent' reports that other hypotheses include mineral deposits left in ancient riverbeds. .<br />Isaac Smith, a geophysicist at York University, suggests the bright reflections are from a kind of clay made when rock erodes in water.<br />I think the beauty of Cyril Grima’s finding <br />is that while it knocks down the idea there <br />might be liquid water under the planet’s <br />south pole today, it also gives us really <br />precise places to go look for evidence <br />of ancient lakes and riverbeds and test <br />hypotheses about the wider drying <br />out of Mars’ climate over billions of years, Isaac Smith, Mars geophysicist at York University, <br />via 'The Independent'
