THE Red Planet could have a water table hidden underground, despite satellite data suggesting otherwise.
Today the small amount of water detected on the planet is locked in the polar ice caps, but recently discovered geological features suggest liquid water once flowed on its surface. This could now be hiding beneath the rocky crust.
The satellite has used in some areas to look for a water table but found no evidence for one, despite research that concluded any water would be found within 9 kilometres of the surface 鈥� well within the reach of the probe鈥檚 instruments.
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Planetary scientist of NASA鈥檚 Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and colleagues will argue in Geophysical Research Letters that we shouldn鈥檛 give up the search just yet, however. The satellite鈥檚 radar signal should bounce back from shiny surfaces like water. But the team calculates that if the layer of rock and icy soil above the water table is particularly conductive, it could be absorbing enough energy from the radar to obscure a telltale signal.
Farrell says the work will be useful for missions to other icy bodies too: 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want future geologists to look at their radar data and say no reflectance means no aquifer.鈥�
