Data on the availability of water in the past on Mars, come from the Marsis radar. SPECIAL

• The plains of the northern hemisphere are covered with low density material

The satellite Mars Express has provided evidence that an ocean covered part of the surface of Mars, something that was already suspected but which is still the subject of controversy

Paris, France (06/FEB/2012)-the European Space Agency (ESA) reported today that its satellite Mars Express has provided evidence that an ocean covered part of the surface of Mars, something that was already suspected but which is still the subject of controversy.

The study left data provided for more than two years by the Marsis radar deployed on the red planet in 2005, and which allowed experts to discover the plains of the northern hemisphere covered with low density material.

Jéremie Mouginot, Institute of planetary astronomy and Astrophysics of Grenoble (PRGA), says in a release of ESA that these compounds appear to be sedimentary deposits, which means “a new and solid proof that in another time there was an ocean”.

The fact that Marte was partially covered by an ocean was a hypothesis already barajada by the scientific community, but this new study provides one of the best evidence to confirm this.

The certainty about the formation of this body of water is still vague, however, and believed that he could have originated 4,000 million years, when there were more forgiving weather on this planet or makes three billion, when surface ice melted after a major impact.

The head of the team of the PRGA, Wlodek Kofman, explains that Marsis penetrated some 60 or 80 meters under the surface of this planet, and that that margin were evidence of sediment and ice.

Scientists ruled out for now keep that Ocean long enough to allow the development of life, and ensure that for evidence thereof must be traced back to earlier times in the history of this planet.

This new study, however, marks a turning point because so far the previous data from Mars Express on the existence of water on Mars came from the study of images or mineralogical or atmospheric information, but not so close insight with the references of the radar.

And at the same time, its findings open up new questions about the whereabouts of all that amount of water, so according to the release, that satellite is continuing its investigations.