The Zhurong landing site (red cross) shown on the geological map by Tanaka et al.13. Regions of different colors indicate different geological units. The red box shows the study area. The thick black line is the Deuteronilus17 contact indicating a possible coastline in the region.
A possible ancient coastline has been found in the region of Mars explored by the Chinese Zhurong rover, providing further evidence that an ocean may have covered a vast area of the lowlands in the planet’s northern hemisphere.
The Chinese rover Zhurong landed in May 2021 in the Utopia Planitia region, in Marte.
Since then, it has contributed to the discovery of strong evidence of an ancient Martian coastline, suggesting that, in the past, a ocean covered vast areas of the lowlands of the northern hemisphere of the planet.
Data collected by Zhurong during a year of operation allowed researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic University to identify topographic features that are consistent with the presence of an ocean that existed approximately 3.68 billion years old and believed to have frozen and disappeared 260 million years later.
The study, this Thursday in Scientific Reportsincluded the combination of remote sensing data and direct observations from the rover, revealing valleys and sediment channels that characterize the southern region of Utopia as a possible coastal zone.
“The findings not only provide further evidence to support the theory of a Martian ocean, but also present, for the first time, a discussion of its likely evolutionary scenario,” explained the research leader. Bo Wu.
As the same magazine highlights, this discovery is significant because it supports the theory of a Martian environment capable of supporting an oceanbringing hope to the debate about the habitability of Mars.
As the researchers reinforce, the hypothesis of a deep ocean in Mars’ past – where even the shallowest areas could have reached depths of up to 600 meters – raises the possibility that the planet was capable of sustain microbial life in its early stages.
“Water is a key ingredient for life, and the past presence of an ocean on Mars raises the prospect that Mars may have been capable of supporting microbial life in its early stages,” said Bo Wu.
