As the closest planet to Earth, Mars has always been of great interest to scientists because of the possibility of the existence of water and life there. The latest results from China’s Zhurong rover add crucial implications to the knowledge of Martian history by suggesting that the planet was once largely submerged beneath an ocean centuries ago.
A giant stride for China – Zhurong rover in search of watermarks on Mars
In the year of 2021, China made a giant leap in its space adventure by deploying lander, the Zhurong rover to the Utopia Planitia region which is in the northern part of the Mars. This region has been suspected to contain some remnants of water for ages. Although the rover stopped working in May 2022 due to the extreme weather on Martian surface, all the information it gathered is of great importance.
The data obtained from the rover’s camera has imaged geological surface features created by water such as pitted cones, polygonal troughs, and etched flows. This implies that the Martian landscape was significantly sculpted by liquid water, perhaps in the form of an ocean.
Notably, pictorial cones, which may be the remains of mud volcanoes are some of the astonishing discoveries. These are the kinds of cones that are prevalent in regions that have been exposed to both water and ice within the past few eras.
The sedimentary deposits and layers beneath the ground, which the rover’s data also showed, suggest that water-related processes occurred there. These morphological characteristics are suggestive of an enormous flood event that occurred approximately 3.7 billion years ago, giving rise to an ocean that spanned a third of the Martian surface.
The geological features and age of Utopia Planitia provide clues for the reconstruction of the ancient ocean on Mars
The work emphasizes the stratigraphy of the study, conducted by Bo Wu from Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the China Academy of Space Technology and the Russian Academy of Sciences, presents a chronology of this ancient ocean.
Scientists assert that the ocean would have frozen first, resulting in a landscape that was gradually shaped over the years. Historians’ estimates reveal that by 3.42 billion years ago, the ocean had already gone missing, thus turning the weather on the planet into an even drier one.
Utopia Planitia, the area investigated in this study, is assumed to have been further subdivided into three broad zones. These include a zone of interaction with the shore, a zone of shallow seas, and a zone of deeper seas. These zones indicate that Mars had at some point a functioning hydrological cycle with the evidence of water existing in that region for quite some time as evidenced by the occurrence of some sedimentary layers, and features with laminations.
If the oceanic area existed, it was probably the result of billions of years’ worth of suppression of surface temperatures and pressures beneath which the planet harbored a slew of subsurface volatiles. The transition of the planet into the dry environment we see today was thus due to reasons affecting the long-term climatic patterns of the planet.
The existence of an ocean on Mars: Likely, but not definitive facts considered
Although the results present strong evidence in favor of an ancient ocean, they nevertheless fall short of being fully conclusive. Bo Wu stressed that more work must be done, such as the study of Martian rocks, to be able to reach such a conclusion due to its implications.
Some scientists like Benjamin Cardenas from Penn State have been less than convinced stating that different forces including wind on Mars should have changed the landscape within a span of billions of years. Still, he himself did not completely dismiss the idea of the red planet being covered with an ocean, “I tend to think there was an ocean on Mars.”
The significance of these findings, however, is enormous, especially considering the quest for life beyond Earth. The presence of water in its liquid form is regarded as one of the basic requirements for the existence of life. Therefore, with existence of large expanse of ocean on Mars, the chances that the planet would have harbored simple life forms in the past is quite high.
With respect to such an ocean, what can its lifespan and conditions tell us as to whether it was possible for the surface of Mars to support microbial life? As researchers work through the extensive data obtained from Zhurong and other missions, the narrative of Mars as a planet with a remarkable history of water is slowly being constructed.
The presence of an ancient sea not only aids in the
understanding of the history of the planet, but also raises the possibility of
finding evidence of life in the solar system. With every addition to the cache,
the occurrence which seems to ascribe a reason and a purpose to the red planet,
only deepens the interest of the scientists and the public.
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