A new discovery on Mars, raising the possibility that life could exist there. A group of Italian researchers said, for the first time, they found a large body of water on the Red Planet. They are calling it an underground lake.

CGTN’s Connie Lee has more.

If you’ve ever wondered if there was water on Mars, wonder no more.

“We have found liquid water in the subsurface of Mars,” said Enrico Flamini, the former chief scientist of the Italian Space Agency. “Water is there and we have not anymore any doubts.”

The Italian Space Agency said they have spotted what appears to be a large lake, beneath the surface of Mars. The scientists said this reservoir is around 20-kilometers in diameter, and about 1.5 kilometers deep, under the southern polar ice cap of Mars.

Over the years, there have been reports of water on Mars but it is the first time a stable body of liquid water was ever found on the Red Planet.

Water on Mars adds to the possibility that life did once exist on the planet, and also raises speculation that there still might be life there today.

So how did they find this body of water?

Scientists used a radar instrument called MARSIS aboard the Mars Express, an orbiting spacecraft around the planet. The data received from the radar were bright reflections, which did not connect to the presence of dry material.

“We came thus to the conclusion that the only possible explanation for the bright reflection was the presence of liquid water,” said Roberto Orosei, a planetary scientist at the National Institute of Astrophysics.

Water in this underground lake is probably salty, according to the scientists. Otherwise, it would freeze solid.

This study has been published in the journal “SCIENCE,” and although other experts have yet to confirm these findings, the latest development is an encouraging step forward in trying to find life on Mars.