China found evidence of liquid water on Mars

2023-05-05 09:15:00

He rover vehicle Zhurongof Chinese origin, found evidence of liquid water on MarsWhat could it be? abundant millions of years ago.

According to data collected by scientists from the China National Space Administration (CNSA), liquid water could have been widespread on that planet in the past.

The rover, which landed on the so-called red planet in 2021, detected evidence of this water in sand dunes located in low latitudes, that is, far from their poles.

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At some point in history, millions of years ago, water may have been abundant, when the planet was warmer, wetter, and possibly had a thick atmosphere.

Although the Mars’ atmosphere is only one percent as dense as Earth’swhich makes it difficult for liquid water to exist, it can exist in its frozen form, either as underground or glacial lakes.

Both the NASAas the European Space Agency and other organisms, found evidence of ancient water on the planet, but proving the recent presence of water seems a bit more complicated.

Last year, an international team of researchers suggested that liquid water may exist beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars. However, this new study is first evidence.

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Chinese mission to Mars

Meanwhile, the Zhurong currently sits on the southern edge of Utopia Planitia, a vast series of volcanic plains on Mars, and to collect its data, the Chinese scientists used three of the rover’s instruments: two of its cameras and its motion detector. surface composition (MarSCoDe) to analyze the composition of the dunes in the immediate vicinity of the landing site.

“Based on meteorological data measured by Zhurong and other Mars rovers, we inferred that these dune surface features were related to the involvement of liquid saline water, formed by subsequent melting of frost/snow falling on the dunes.” dune surfaces that contain salt when cooling occurs,” Xiaoguang, a geophysicist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, explained in a paper published in the journal Science Advances.

ED

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