The Chinese Zhurong rover has confirmed the existence of an ancient ocean on Mars. Data analysis has shown that 3.6 billion years ago, the Red Planet may have been half covered in water.
Scientists studied data obtained by the Chinese Zhurong rover, which operated on Mars from May 2021 to May 2022. They identified underground coastal deposits that indicate the existence of an ancient ice-free ocean. The discovery was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Speculation about a Martian ocean dates back to the 1970s, when the Viking probe recorded shore-like structures in the northern hemisphere. New data from NASA in 2024 confirmed the presence of massive water-bearing rocks at a depth of 10–20 kilometers. Their volume is sufficient to cover the planet with an ocean 1–2 kilometers deep.
If the hypothesis is correct, it changes ideas about the climate of Mars in the past. Perhaps the planet had warmer conditions suitable for life.
The discovery of the Zhurong rover and NASA data confirm scientists’ long-standing guesses: billions of years ago there really was an ocean on Mars. These findings help to understand the evolution of the planet and the prospects for future missions.
Source: kedr.media *The Ministry of Justice recognized him as a foreign agent
