A new investigation reveals that Mars apparently possessed a large body of water, bigger than the Atlantic Ocean.

Data revealed water could have covered as much as a fifth of the Martian surface.

Mars is known to be a desolate, desert world now. This significant and recent evidence, however, suggests large amounts of water indeed existed on the Red Planet in the past.

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Further analysis of water found in the Martian atmosphere can help reveal how this substance disappeared on the planet's surface.

Using ground based telescopes, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory and NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, astronomers analyzed how these water maps present data about the locations of underground reservoirs on Mars.

Astronomers then searched above the planet where they looked for concentrations of normal water compared with the HDO molecule where the hydrogen atom is replaced by deuterium, which is the heavy counterpart of the light element.

These measurements will be compared with readings from a Martian meteorite aged 4.5 billion years old that can also provide clues about the early Martian atmosphere and the solar system in its earliest stages.

Today, the northern and southern polar ice caps on Mars possess the most water on the surface of the alien planet. These features can also help link to more information about the development of water on Mars some 3.7 billion years ago, ever since the end of the wet Noachian period.

Water can signify life and the presence of water on Mars that once existed a long time ago might bring about evidence of alien life on the surface of the planet. Scientists have calculated this ancient ocean could have covered 19 percent of the land area on the Red Planet, compared to the Atlantic Ocean which only covers 17 percent of Earth.

According to Michael Mumma from the Goddard Space Flight Center, if Mars lost that much water, it could suggest that the planet was likely to be wet for a very longer period than previously thought and could have been also habitable for a long time.

Scientists believe that some 4.3 billion years ago, Mars had enough water to cover the entire surface of the planet up to 450 feet deep. Further examination of the planet revealed that most of that water was concentrated in one massive ocean that stretches over half of the northern hemisphere.

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