China’s Zhurong Mars Rover will land on the Red Planet in 2021.
China’s fully robotic Mars rover has found traces of recent water activity on the Red Planet for the first time, indicating that Mars may have regions where conditions are suitable for life to exist. According to a paper published in the journal science advanceThe Zhurong rover, expected to land on Mars in 2021, detected evidence of liquid water on sand dunes at low latitudes, that is, towards the equator and away from its poles.
In their study, the Chinese researchers noted that scientists have long believed that about three billion years ago, Mars once had an Earth-like climate and that an ocean flowed across its surface. But the dramatic climate change turned out to be much greater, with scientists believing that most of it got trapped in the planet’s outer layer, or crust. To date, no evidence was provided to show the presence of liquid water at low latitudes on the Red Planet.
However, the latest research is now considered a major breakthrough in understanding the evolutionary history of Mars.
Scientists studying data from China’s Zhurong rover reported that the rover did not directly detect any water in the form of frost or ice, but instead observed crevasses and crusted salt-rich dunes. The rover found cracks on small Martian dunes for the first time, implying that the Red Planet was once a world with salt-rich water, as recently as 400,000 years ago, the study said.
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The Chinese researchers explain that as temperatures on Mars soar wildly and spike in the morning, the salt water evaporates and leaves behind salt and other newly formed minerals that then seep between the sand grains of the dunes , making them a crust.
“This is important for understanding the evolutionary history of Martian climate, seeking habitable environments, and providing important clues for future searches for life,” said lead researcher Professor Qin Xiaoguang, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). “
The team said they used the robotic rover’s navigation and data obtained by the Terrain Camera, the Multispectral Camera and the Mars Surface Composition Detector. They found that the surface layer of the mound was rich in hydrated sulfates, hydrated silica, iron oxide minerals and possibly chlorides.
“According to meteorological data measured by Xurong and other Mars rovers, we hypothesized that these dune surface features were related to the participation of liquid salt water, which forms after frost/snow falling on salt-rich dune surfaces when cooled.” Melting.” Mr. Qin said.