Scientists have found a cluster of three salty liquid water lakes on Mars, each about six miles across, below the planet's south polar ice cap. The new discovery is the first ‘alien’ water found on the Red Planet since 2018, when the first ever lake was discovered beneath the Martian south polar ice cap. Researchers used the probe's Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument to explore the planet's polar ice caps. Detection of sub-glacial liquid water in Ultimi Scopuli in 2018 reignited hopes of extra-terrestrial life in liquid water at the Martian polar regions. 'Therefore we think that any process of formation and persistence of sub-ice water beneath the ice polar caps requires the liquid to have high salinity.'

Source: Daily Mail September 28, 2020 15:03 UTC