Every now and then, we hear news about our neighboring planet Mars. Many people have thoughts of living there when and if Earth gets congested. Can we really reside on the Red Planet? Will Mars be humankind's new home?
Many have said that Mars is the best planet that is suitable for humans to live in, that's why NASA has done many space explorations to see if it can really sustain life. Just recently, the Red Planet was featured in the movie "The Martian," starring Matt Damon as Mark Watney who survived an equivalent of 564 Earth days on the planet. And late last year, sightings of a Martian lake urged NASA to investigate more if life does exist.
According to Christian Science Monitor, the new found lake will help change the history of the Red Planet. The report not only confirms that water has been present before Mars lost its magnetic field and it can also validate that microbial life can support and live longer.
Sharon Wilson of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Virginia said in a statement, "we discovered valleys that carried water into lake basins". She also added that "several lake basins filled and overflowed, indicating there was a considerable amount of water on the landscape during this time."
Many scientists believe that Mars was able to support life much longer than they thought. Recent reports and findings also said that the lake is bigger than it was first discovered late last year.
Space.com reported that the Martian Lake was nicknamed "Heart Lake," and it can hold about 670 cubic miles (about 2,790 cubic km) of water - a bit more than Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. It also stated on the report that NASA's Curiosity rover and other missions already found an indication that lakes and other bodies of water have been present about 3.7 billion years or more ago on the planet.
The discovery of the lake could inspire more research and explorations on Mars that maybe could lead to breakthrough discoveries proving that life can settle there.
