Hints of life on Mars? Scientists find three lakes buried under the red planet's surface!

Looks like we might be getting closer to discovering life on mars. Two years ago, scientists discovered a large reservoir under Mars icy surface. Now, they have found three such more lakes!

On Monday, a paper in Nature Astronomy claimed that researchers have found three lakes burrowed under the red planet’s surface, in addition to the saltwater lake discovered earlier. Radar data from the European Space Agency (ESA) was used to discover the water bodies.

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The report quoted one of the paper’s authors - Elena Pettinelli from the University Rome, who called the discovery mechanism ‘complex’ - "We identified the same body of water, but we also found three other bodies of water around the main one...It's a complex system."

The lakes are spread across 75,000 square kilometres. The largest lake, which lies in the centre of all three is 30 kilometres long, while the three smaller lakes are a “few kilometres wide”.

This discovery could lay the groundwork for finding more life-sustaining characteristics on our neighbour, which has been under the watchful eye of the top brass, given the severity of climate change, which experts fear is nearing a point of no return for Earth.

Scientists believe that such lakes could point to existence of life on Mars!

The detection of three lakes is an extrapolation of the previous findings in the previous region which pointed to what’s being dubbed as the central lake. It was found in 2018, making the first liquid water body ever detected on Mars, which could also mean there is potential scope of life on the planet.

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The report, however added that the “finding was based on just 29 observations made from 2012 to 2015." As opposed to that, the new study took into account broader data signifiers - taking into account 134 observations between 2012 and 2019.

Scientists also believe that the salt content in any Martian lake will be over the roof! According to Pettinelli, “from a thermal point of view it has to be salty."

Water bodies with salt content five times over seawater can sustain life. But if the salt content is 20 times over Earth seawater levels, life cannot exist in such water bodies, the report added, while quoting John Priscu, an environmental scientist from the Montana State University.