Here’s what Mars would look like covered in water

What would Mars look like if it was 71 percent water, the same percentage as Earth? Thanks to a simulation, we have a good idea.

Aaditya Raj Bhattarai, a Nepal-based civil engineering student at Tribhuwan University, produced a map that considers what the planet would look like after it was covered in water.

The results are spectacular. Two landmasses form after the water falls down. The first is a west continent with Olympus Mons, which measures as the biggest volcano in the solar system.

The second, to the east, shows a series of flat plains that includes land masses like Terra Sabaea.

Bhattarai is not the first person to become interested in water on Mars. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has spoken before about his dream to terraform the planet. In fact, the SpaceX lobby includes images of what the planet may look like. The images look very similar to Bhattarai's.

The Starship, SpaceX's under-development rocket, is expected to send humans to Mars in the coming years.

Musk has spoken before about his desire to build a city on the planet by 2050.

From there, the CEO wants to terraform the planet using a series of low-fallout nuclear explosions that would release potentially stored carbon dioxide.

The plan has sparked debate among experts as to whether it would work.

But as scientists race to get humanity to Mars, Bhattarai's map is an exciting glimpse of a future that seems closer than ever.