Researchers in Italy have found evidence of a lake of liquid water on Mars, raising the possibility of life on the red planet. The scientists found the lake, which is about 20km wide and 1.5km beneath the planet’s southern polar ice cap, using a radar instrument on an orbiting spacecraft and believe it could be a possible habitat for microbial life.

The reservoir, located 1.5km beneath the ice surface, is shaped like a rounded triangle and represents the first stable body of liquid ever found on Mars. ‘It’s probably not a very large lake,’ says Professor Roberto Orosei from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, who led the study.