Scientists detect giant underground aquifer on Mars, raising hope of life on the planet
Radar has found something big under the surface
By Loren Grush@lorengrush Jul 25, 2018, 10:00am EDT
Mars hosts a huge underground aquifer of liquid water, according to a group of scientists who say they have found convincing evidence. The underground lake hasn’t been seen directly, but if it’s real, it’s a discovery that substantially increases the likelihood that the Red Planet might host life.
Researchers detected the possible reservoir with the Mars Express Orbiter, a European spacecraft that’s been orbiting Mars since 2003. While scanning the ice cap at Mars’ south pole, the probe’s radar instrument, called MARSIS, detected a feature about a mile underneath the surface that was about 12.4 miles wide. The structure has a radar signature that matches that of buried liquid water here on Earth, leading the team to conclude that there’s a lake under the glacier. The researchers say they’ve ruled out all other possibilities for what they’re seeing.
For decades now, planetary scientists have tried to find liquid water on Mars; most agree that it likely exists in certain regions. This finding, detailed today in Science, is the first indication that water may exist in pools underneath the Martian surface. That has big implications for the search for alien life on our planetary neighbor: bacteria have been found here on Earth in water under glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland. “Pretty much anywhere there is liquid water on Earth, you find something that’s managed to survive in it,” Tanya Harrison, a planetary scientist and director of research for Arizona State University’s Space Technology and Science Initiative who was not involved with this discovery, tells The Verge. An underground reservoir may be the perfect place for Mars microbes to survive as well.
“I’ve run out of ideas on how to explain this in a way that isn’t water,” Roberto Orosei, a researcher at Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics and lead of the team that found the formation, tells The Verge. “We’ve tried to exhaust every possible alternative, and we think we’ve done it.”
More:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/25/17606966/mars-liquid-water-reservoir-underground-habitable-life-radar
Many images of Mars South Pole as seen from Mars Express:
https://tinyurl.com/ya223yq7
= new reply since forum marked as read
Seems like a good way to improve things. 
When I was an undergrad in geology, back in the 80s, I wrote a paper explaining how there could indeed be water on Mars. The TA who taught the course ridiculed me in front of the entire class, wrote a scathing critique of my "opinion" (despite the six pages of footnotes) and threatened to give me an "F" for the paper.
I went to his major professor (who was also co-chair of the Geology Department), showed him the paper and explained what the TA had done to me. He read my paper, and thought it was "inspired" (his words) for its forward thinking. The next class he taught with that TA, he chose to lecture on the possibility of water on Mars, wherein he read my paper out loud, keeping his gaze on that TA.
The TA sat there squirming as he recognized it as my paper. The PhD ended the class with the following quote from Einstein:
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
As the class was filing out, he called the TA over and told him that he thought he should re-read my paper, this time with an open mind.
And now, all the world's scientists (geologists included) are considering water on Mars.
