Vastitas Borealis -- The greatest ocean you have never heard of

Scientists have announced that Mars was once home to a vast ocean as great as the Atlantic on Earth. That ocean could have provided the environment for life to flourish and has scientists excited that they could at least find microbial life on Mars within the next few years.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Scientists have concluded that a vast ocean covered much of the planet's northern hemisphere billions of years ago. The ocean is believed to have lasted for 1.5 billion years and some of its water remains locked in the frozen ice caps of the planet.

Billions of years ago, Mars was a warmer, wetter world. However for reasons that remain a mystery, the planet lost much of its atmosphere and water over time. The thinning atmosphere allowed water molecules to evaporate into space. Eventually the entire ocean evaporated with the exception of heavy water.

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Heavy water is still H2O, but with a deuterium atom bonded to it. Those molecules did not evaporate into space and remain on the planet today. Much of the Martian water today is of the heavy variety.

By calculating the rate of evaporation of normal water, scientists were able to infer how much water the planet once had from the amount of heavy water that remains.

Using three of the world's most powerful infrared telescopes, researchers measured the water in the Martian atmosphere and the seasonal and regional variations. They were also able to determine that the ocean was in the plains of the northern hemisphere of the planet, but additional evidence, such as imagery, reveal that water once gathered in lakes and streams on Mars. There is also some anecdotal evidence that water may still flow on some places on Mars, although no direct observations of water at the surface have been made.

The ocean on Mars covered about 20 percent of the planet's surface. Today a vast plain, called Vastitas Borealis, (the vast north) remains. There are far fewer impact craters there than in the south, adding to the likelihood that water once flowed there. The coean could have been up to a mile deep in places.

It is widely believed that a lot of water remains below the planet's surface as well as in the polar ice caps.

Water is widely thought to be a requirement for life as we know it, since it serves as a medium which can break down molecules and new combinations can readily form. It is also possible that life could have migrated from Earth to Mars on an errant meteorite ejected from Earth during an impact. Either that, or the alternative is possible; life could have started on Mars and been seeded to Earth via a Martian meteorite.

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The ultimate question scientists are anxious to solve is the question of how life formed and if it forms easily in the universe or if it is so difficult to form that Earth could be the only place where life exists.

Recent scientific research suggests that life should be common, but no hard evidence of this has yet been found. Indeed, until life is conclusively detected elsewhere the debate will rage.

In 2018, the European Space Agency is sending a rover to Mars with the specific intention of finding evidence for life.

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