We’ve found an underground lake on Mars: Radar data from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft appears to have found a sizable salt-laden lake under ice on the southern polar plain of Mars, Reuters reports. The reservoir they detected represents the first stable body of liquid water ever found on Mars, scientists said.

So, in the words of the late, great David Bowie: Is there life on Mars? The detection of liquid water, a fundamental ingredient for life, could raise the change there is native microbial life on the red planet, scientists said. There are similar environments on earth that harbor life, said planetary scientist Roberto Orosei of Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy, who led the research. However, verifying whether something is actually living in this body of water could take years, and even a surface mission to drill under the ice.