A Chinese rover has found new clues to support the theory that there was once a vast ocean on Mars. It has traced an ancient coastline along which water may have once existed, a study says.
The theory that an ocean covered up to a third of the Red Planet billions of years ago has been the subject of debate among scientists for decades. One outside researcher expressed some skepticism about the latest results, AFP reported.
In 2021, the Chinese rover Zhurong landed on a plain in the Utopia region of Mars' northern hemisphere, where signs of ancient water had previously been spotted.
It has been probing the red surface ever since. Some new findings from the mission were revealed in a new study published in the journal Nature.
Lead study author Bo Wu of Hong Kong Polytechnic University said various features were spotted around Zhurong's landing zone that speak of a past ocean, including "pitted cones, polygonal troughs and etched streams."
Previous research has suggested that the crater-like concave cones could have originated from mud volcanoes and often formed in areas where water or ice was present.
Information from the rover, as well as satellite data and Earth-based analysis, also suggest that there was once a coastline near the area.
The research team estimates that the ocean was created as a result of a flood nearly 3.7 billion years ago.
It then froze, carving out a coastline, before disappearing just over 3.4 billion years ago, according to their scenario.
Bo stressed that the team "does not claim that our findings definitively prove that there was an ocean on Mars."
That degree of certainty would likely require a mission to bring Martian rocks back to Earth for closer examination. | BGNES
