Large reserves of water discovered in the canyons of Mars

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) orbiter has discovered vast reserves of water in the Mars canyon system. About it reported on the website of the European Space Agency (ESA).

The water was found in one of the regions of the Mariner Valley - the largest known canyon in the solar system, which is 10 times longer and five times deeper than the Grand Canyon in the United States. Scientists estimate that the area they discovered is comparable in size to the Netherlands (about 41,000 km²), and at the same time water there can make up 40% of the topsoil.

Alexei Malakhov, a researcher at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that this region is very similar to areas of permafrost on Earth, where water ice remains under dry soil due to constant low temperatures.

A device called an epithermal neutron detector (FREND) helped to detect water in TGO. He sees neutrons emanating from the planet's surface, which can be a marker of hydrogen content at depths of up to 1 meter.

This discovery could affect the planning of future missions to the Red Planet, including the landing of humans. The presence of such an amount of water at a shallow depth makes this region very attractive for the landing of the first expedition.