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The possibility that ancient Mars had an ocean has long since been explored. As early as the 1970s, spacecraft captured images that suggested large bodies of water may have existed on the Red Planet. Now, data from China's Zhurong rover suggests that ancient Mars might have been home to an ocean and even white sand beaches not dissimilar from those we have on Earth.
Intrigued? Check out this gallery to find out more.
Our closest neighbor in the solar system, Mars, is dry and dusty. There is not a drop of water to be found the whole planet over.
Astronomers believe, however, that this wasn’t always the case. Indeed, they think that, billions of years ago, the Red Planet was a lot warmer and wetter than it is today.
Although the presence of water on ancient Mars is largely uncontested, astronomers disagree about how much water may have existed and in what form.
For some time now, certain researchers have suspected that Mars was once home to a northern ocean with waves that lapped against sandy beaches.
And according to an article recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they may now have evidence.
The search for evidence of an ocean on ancient Mars is nothing new. In fact, it has been ongoing since the 1970s.
The first missions to spot features that may be indicative of a Martian body of water were NASA’s Mariner 9 and Viking 2.
Both of these spacecrafts captured images of sections of Mars’ surface that are believed to date back to the Hesperian Period (3.7 billion to 2.9 billion years ago).
The giant canyons captured by Mariner 9 are generally considered to suggest the presence of water.
However, they are thought to be the result of huge bursts of groundwater to the surface, rather than evidence of standing water.
The images captured by Viking 2, however, provided evidence of what appeared to be a shoreline in the planet’s northern hemisphere.
In stark contrast to the shorelines here on Earth, however, the suspected shoreline on Mars appears to be very uneven.
Indeed, images show a jagged line with height variations of up to 6.2 miles (10 kilometers).
According to experts from the University of California, Berkeley, the uneven shoreline may be explained by volcanic activity that has disrupted it over time.
Until the most recent study was published, however, there was no conclusive evidence of an ocean ever existing on Mars.
It was the aim of China’s Zhurong rover, and its ground-penetrating radar system, to change that.
The Zhurong rover landed on the Red Planet in May 2021, and it worked there for a year. Its work site was Utopia Planitia.
Utopia Planitia is a plain with the largest known impact basin on Mars. It is located near a series of ridges in the planet’s northern hemisphere.
These ridges are the area of Mars that scientists have long since suspected may have been a shoreline.
When the Zhurong rover landed, it traveled along the ridges, collecting data up to 260 feet (80 meters) beneath the Martian surface.
The most interesting data provided by the rover was collected between 32.8 and 114.8 feet (10 and 35 meters) down.
At these depths below the surface, the rover detected sedimentary structures similar to those found on layered beaches on Earth.
The rover also measured the size of the particles, which matched the size of grains of sand.
In considering what these structures most resembled, the study’s authors thought about sand dunes or lava flows.
However, they ultimately decided that the structures most closely resembled coastal sediments found on Earth.
According to the study’s authors, the rover may have found what experts refer to as "foreshore deposits."
These take millions of years to form; they are the result of sediments being carried by tides and waves sloping downwards toward an ocean.
This discovery jumped out at the researchers because the presence of foreshore deposits suggests there were once waves.
And if there were waves, this means there was a dynamic interface between air and water–the very scenario that first gave rise to life on Earth.
Scientists are still working out all the potential implications of this new study, but some believe it may result in a major rethinking of Mars’s climate history.
Sources: (CNN)
See also: Fascinating facts you didn't know about the planet Mercury
New study suggests there were beaches on ancient Mars
The fascinating findings of the Zhurong rover
LIFESTYLE Astronomy
The possibility that ancient Mars had an ocean has long since been explored. As early as the 1970s, spacecraft captured images that suggested large bodies of water may have existed on the Red Planet. Now, data from China's Zhurong rover suggests that ancient Mars might have been home to an ocean and even white sand beaches not dissimilar from those we have on Earth.
Intrigued? Check out this gallery to find out more.