By Aazam
Mars was photographed by the comet-hunting Rosetta spacecraft during a flyby of the planet. There could be a lake hidden beneath the southern Martian pole
The Red Planet was submerged in water around three billion years ago, as shown by the now-dry riverbeds, deltas, and ocean basins
However, the planet's magnetic field was lost along with its shielding from the solar wind
This largely removed the planet's atmosphere and allowed the majority of its water to enter space
The polar caps of Mars contain a significant amount of water in the form of ice, almost as much as the Greenland ice sheet does on Earth
Water is necessary for exobiologists searching for potential life on Mars, but only in its liquid form, thus ice is somewhat of a dealbreaker
According to a recent study published in Nature Astronomy, there may be a lake submerged beneath the ice on Mars, at least in the south pole
It can stretch up to 30 km (18 mi) in length and is heated by geothermal energy, which is produced on Earth by radioactive isotopes or deep magma