Produced by: Tarun Mishra
China's Zhurong rover, which landed on Mars in 2021, has found new geological evidence suggesting that Mars might have once hosted a vast ocean. The study, published in Nature, strengthens the theory that an ocean may have covered nearly a third of the Red Planet billions of years ago.
The rover explored the Utopia Planitia, a northern Martian plain where previous indications of ancient water had been identified. The study's findings come from the detailed examination of this area, adding significant insights to the ocean hypothesis.
The Zhurong mission detected geological features associated with past water, including “pitted cones, polygonal troughs, and etched flows,” which align with structures often found in water-rich or icy environments.
Based on data collected from Zhurong and satellite imaging, researchers suggested that the region could have once been a shoreline, providing additional support for the existence of a large ocean in Mars’s past.
The study proposes that the ocean was likely formed due to a massive flooding event around 3.7 billion years ago. Later, the water froze and carved out a coastline before eventually disappearing approximately 3.4 billion years ago.
Some experts remain cautious about the findings. Benjamin Cardenas, a Mars researcher from Pennsylvania State University, expressed scepticism, suggesting that the study might not fully account for Mars’s strong winds that could have eroded the shoreline evidence over billions of years.
While acknowledging that wind erosion might have altered some rocks, study lead Bo Wu highlighted the role of meteors, which occasionally expose buried rock and sediment, providing researchers with further evidence of past environments.
Determining if Mars had an ancient ocean is pivotal for understanding whether it could have once supported life. According to Cardenas, oceanic environments on Earth are seen as prime sites for the origin of life, suggesting Mars might have once offered similar conditions suitable for life.