Photo: Any Possible Mars Water or Life Is Deep Below Surface

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A true-color image created from 1997-1998 data shows the ice cap of the Martian north pole.

A new radar study has found that the ice cap is about five million years old, and the underlying bedrock is surprisingly flat and cold, reducing the viable range in which liquid water can exist on the red planet.

Image courtesy NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (Scientific Visualization Studio Mars Orbiter Camera data courtesy of NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems)

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