Bad News for Martian Life Enthusiasts

In the past few years, the Mars Express orbiter scanned the Martian polar ice caps with radar and discovered evidence of liquid water in the form of super-salty lakes below the surface. In terms of finding life, that's a good thing. Where there's water, there's probably life. But there's a problem with that, according to a new study. In order for liquid water to exist at the poles, it would require a lot more energy than what Mars is capable of providing, at least as far as we know.

There's another problem, according to the study, in that there's a type of clay, abundant on Mars, that can give the same radar signature as water. So, let's consider the evidence; either the radar signature came from something known to exist on Mars in significant quantities or there are lakes down there which defy the laws of physics and thermodynamics. Perhaps there is still life on Mars, but the polar lakes theory is a dead end.