New research suggests that Mars may have enough water beneath its surface to form a global ocean.
On Monday, scientists released their findings, which are based on seismic measurements captured by NASA's Mars InSight rover, which detected more than 1,300 earthquakes before shutting down two years ago.
Water is thought to be hiding in cracks in underground rocks and could be seven to twelve miles beneath the Martian crust.
The water could have seeped from the surface billions of years ago, when the Red Planet had rivers, lakes and possibly oceans, lead scientist Vashan Wright of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, told The Associated Press.
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A view of Mars from NASA's Mars InSight lander (NASA/Twitter)
But while there may be water beneath Mars' crust, that doesn't necessarily mean there's life, Wright said.
“Instead, our findings mean that there are environments that could possibly be habitable,” he told the AP in an email.
Wright's team used computer models and Insight readings, including earthquake speeds, to determine that groundwater was the most likely explanation.
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Artist's concept of MAVEN orbiting Mars: This illustration shows the MAVEN spacecraft and the limb of Mars. (Credits: NASA/GSFC)
The team's results appeared Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Wright said that if InSight's location near the planet's equator is representative of the rest of Mars, there would be enough water underground to fill a global ocean to a depth of about a mile.
Scientists would have to find a way to drill deep enough into the planet's crust to confirm the potential for life and the presence of water.
Although large volumes of water are believed to have existed on the surface of Mars more than 3 billion years ago, scientists hypothesize that the water drained into the ground or was lost to space.
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It is also believed that the water disappeared as the planet's atmosphere weakened, turning the planet into a dry, dusty world.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
