Within those images study authors Aditya Khuller and Philip Christensen found the lowest latitude evidence of dusty water ice on Mars that has formed into gullies.

This is significant, said Khuller, as ice on Mars melts when it is dusty and at lower latitudes where it is warmer there could be stable liquid water 'within the ice'.

While this doesn't necessarily mean there is life within that liquid water, it would be the best place to find surviving life on Mars today, the authors explained.

The melting of this dusty water ice could provide places for any surviving life to exist on Mars.

Based on the brightness of the deposits, Khuller and Christensen determined that they must be dusty water ice - similar in appearance to dirty snow on Earth.

Mantles found in the Dao Valles on Mars show a gully incision (black arrow) possibly made by dusty melting water ice exposed to the warmer equatorial summer weather.

This is due to the fact small amounts of liquid water may be produced within these water ice deposits in the summer - at the equator.

On the right is a new high resolution image of the same location from a decade later with dusty water ice exposed and melting.

'We believe that these dusty ice deposits are the best candidates to look for small amounts of shallow liquid water, and therefore potentially ideal locations for any surviving life on Mars.'.

Khuller and Christensen plan to develop new computer simulations of how this water ice changes with time, and they will continue to document more locations with exposed ice so that future Mars missions could potentially target them.

In order for life to exist on a planet, many scientists believe it is essential for the world to possess liquid water.

Scientists cited the debris and mud deposits left behind as evidence for moving water existing at some point in the history of the red planet

In 2015, Nasa claimed to have discovered the first evidence of liquid water on Mars in the present day

The space agency said that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provided the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars. 

Also in 2017, scientists provided the best estimates for water on Mars, claiming it once had more liquid H2O than the Arctic Ocean - and the planet kept these oceans for more than 1.5 billion years

The findings suggest there was ample time and water for life on Mars to thrive, but over the last 3.7 billion years the red planet has lost 87 per cent of its water - leaving the surface barren and dry. 

In a study published in the journal Science, ESO researchers have now discovered the first concrete evidence for liquid water on Mars