Mars Images Show Ice Sea, Scientists Say

Images relayed by a European space probe revealed the existence of a sea of ice close to the equator of Mars, scientists said Tuesday at a conference in the Netherlands. Water or ice would significantly increase the chance that evidence of microscopic life may also be found.

The evidence comes from unpublished photographs taken last year by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express probe, which is orbiting the Red Planet.

Scientists have long theorized that there was once water on Mars, and data from NASA’s Mars rovers have recently appeared to confirm it.

But most scientists believed that the water evaporated into the atmosphere early in the planet’s history.

“The point is that the ice is very recent. It appears to still be there, covered beneath a layer of dust and ash,” John Murray of Britain’s Open University said.

Murray co-wrote a paper detailing the findings that is to be published in the March 17 issue of the journal Nature.

“You can see pack ice in formations that are remarkably similar, identical to ice floes in Antarctica,” he said.

Murray said the ice was believed to have formed 5 million years ago atop a body of water the size of Earth’s North Sea.

The water is believed to have originated beneath the surface and gushed forth in a flood after being warmed by the planet’s core.