Its four-year mission came to an end in December 2022 but analysis of the data it collected remains ongoing.
A useful starting point is to identify where water is and how much is there.
Wright and his team did not just look at the chemical composition of the dirt directly below InSight.
Data from NASA’s InSight lander offers the best evidence yet of liquid water on Mars.© NASA/JPL-Caltech
The speed at which these quakes travelled allowed the team to infer which substances are present beneath the surface.
The best explanation for the data was that liquid water is present within the crust.
They acknowledged that the findings are not definitive, but highlighted the need to further study Mars mineralogy.
Cutaway view of Mars InSight lander and data it collected. © James Tuttle Keane and Aaron Rodriquez
Because Mars atmosphere is far thinner than Earths, fresh liquid water turns to gas more easily.
A 2016paperconcluded dark streaks on the Martian surface may be formed by water running downhill.
That theory got a big boost recently, thanks to the Perseverance rovers discovery ofa very strange rock.
The presence of liquid water would also be a huge plus for any crewed missions to the planet.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
