In the 1970s, images of NASA Meriner 9 orbiter revealed the surfaces surrounded by water on Mars. This once solved the question whether the water ever rips on the red planet. Since then, more and more evidence has been revealed that the water once plays a big role on our planet neighbor.
For example, Martian meteorites recorded evidence for water 4.5 billion years ago. On the young side of Timescale, the effect creters formed in the last few years show the presence of ice under the surface today.
Today, hot topics focus on when the water appeared, how much it was, and how long it went on. Perhaps nowadays all Mangal Mangal is the most irritation of water related subjects: was there ever an ocean?
Today a new study published in PNAS has made a lot of splash. The study included a team of Chinese and American scientists led by Gianhui Lee from Guangzhou University in China, and was based on the work done by Mars Rover Zurong of the China National Space Administration.
Jhurong’s data provide an unprecedented look in the billions of year old rocks of a proposed coastline. Researchers have claimed that the beach accumulated from an ancient Martian Ocean.
Blue water on a red planet
The Rovers who discover Mars study many aspects of the planet including geology, soil and environment. They are often looking for any proof of water. It is in part because water is an important factor to determine whether Mars has ever supported life.
The sedimentary rocks often focus a special focus of the investigation, as they can have evidence of water – and therefore on life – Mars.
For example, NASA Perseverance Rover is currently searching for life in a delta deposit. Deltas are triangular areas that are often found where rivers flow into a large body of water, accumulating a large amount of sediment. Examples on Earth include Mississippi Delta in the United States and Neel Delta in Egypt.
The firmness that the delta is searching for the rover is located within the Jazero Impact Creater, about 45 km wide, it is believed that it is an ancient lake site.
Jhurong had its own places on a very different body of water – an ancient ocean vestage located in the northern hemisphere of Mars.
God of fire
Jhurong Rover is named after a mythical deity of Agni.
It was launched by the Chinese National Space Administration in 2020 and was active on Mars from 2021 to 2022. The Zurong Utopia landed within the plightia, a huge expansion and the biggest impact on Mars which spreads in a diameter of some 3,300 km.
The wrinkles are examining an area near a series of luxuries – described as a peliosorline – that spreads to thousands of kilometers on Mars. Paleoshorelines have previously been interpreted as the remains of a global ocean that surrounded the northern third of Mars.
However, there are different views between scientists about this, and more comments are required.
On Earth, the geological record of the oceans is specific. The modern oceans are only a few millions of years old. Nevertheless, the global rock record is filled with deposits made by many older oceans, some billions of years old.
what lies Beneath
To determine whether the rocks in Utopia Planitia are corresponding to the deposits by an ocean, the rover collected data with a 1.3 km measured line, known as a transit on the margin of the basin. The transit was vertical oriented to the peliosorline. The goal was what the rock types are, and what story they tell.
Jhurong Rover used a technique called ground penetrating radar, which examines 100 meters below the surface. The data revealed several characteristics of the bury rocks, including their orientation.
Imaged with rocks contains several contemplative layers that appear to penetrate the radar at least 30 meters down. All layers also shallow a dip in the basin, away from the peliosorline. This geometry actually indicates how the Mahamis on Earth are deposited in the oceans.
The ground penetrating radar also measured how much rocks are affected by an electric field. The results showed that the rocks are more likely to be sediment and there are no volcanic flows, which can also form layers.
The study collected wrinkled data with ground penetrating radar data for various sedimentary environment on Earth from Utopia Plightia.
The result of the comparison is clear – rocks are a match for coastal sediments stored with wrinkles imaged an ocean margin.
Jhurong found a beach.
A wet mars
4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago, the Nachian period of Martian history is a poster child for a wet Mars. There is abundant evidence from the orbital images of the valley network and mineral maps that the surface of the Nachian Mars had surface water.
However, there are less evidence for surface water during the hepperian period, 3.7 to 3 billion years ago. The stunning orbital images of larger outflow channels in Hesperian land forms, known as how the walls are known, are believed to be formed from a terrible release of groundwater rather than standing water.
From this scene, Mars has been cooled and dried up from the hepperian time.
However, wrinkled rover findings of coastal deposits formed in an ocean may indicate that the surface water on Mars was stable compared to the first recognized. It may have lasted in the late hepperian period.
This may mean that the living environment around an ocean has been expanded in recent times.
Aaron J. Cavosi, Senior Lecturer, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University
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