A HUGE 12-mile wide lake of liquid water lies beneath the southern ice cap of Mars, scientists have learned.
Dissolved salts are thought to keep the water fluid, despite having a temperature below freezing point.
The discovery, which has major implications for the chances of life surviving on the Red Planet, was made by an orbiting European probe using ground-penetrating radar.
It is the first time a large stable body of liquid water has been confirmed to exist on Mars.
The lake, similar to those beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets on Earth, lies about 1.5 kilometres (0.9 miles) below the surface of a region called Planum Australe, close to the Martian south pole, and stretches out for 20 kilometres. Scientists detected the lake while carrying out a radar survey using the Mars Express spacecraft.
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