A vision of the region of Planitia Utopia on Mars that is believed to be the site of an ancient ocean. Credit: ESA/DLR/Fu Berlin, CC By-SA
In the 70s, the images of NASA Mariner 9’s Orbiter revealed surfaces carved on the water on Mars. This resolved the question of a controversial time if the water has ever encore the red planet.
Since then, more and more evidence has emerged that once the water has played an important role in our nearby planetarium.
For example, Martian meteorites recorded for water tests again at 4.5 billion years ago. On the young side of the temporal scale, the impact craters formed in recent years today show the presence of ice under the surface.
Today the hot topics focus on when the water appeared, how much there was and how long it lasted. Perhaps nowadays the most burning of all the topics related to the water of Mars: were the oceans ever?
A new study published in PNA On February 24 he made a nice dip. The study involved a team of Chinese and American scientists led by Jianhui Li of the University of Guangzhou in China and was based on the work done by the China National Space Administration Mars Rover Zhurong.
Zhurong data provide an unprecedented look in the rocks buried near a coast proposed billions of years. The researchers claim to have found deposits on the beach from an ancient Martian ocean.
Blue water on a red planet
Rovers who explore Mars study many aspects of the planet, including geology, soil and the atmosphere. They are often looking for water tests. This is partly because water is a vital factor to determine if Mars has ever supported life.
Sedimentary rocks are often at the center of the investigation, because they can contain evidence of water – and therefore life – on Mars.
For example, NASA Perseverance Rover is currently looking for life in a Delta deposit. Delta are often triangular regions that rivers flow into larger water bodies, depositing large quantities of sediments. Examples on Earth include the Mississippi Delta in the United States and in the Nile delta in Egypt.
The Delta The Perseverance Rover is exploring is located inside the Jezero impact crater of about 30 miles (45 km), which is believed to be the site of an ancient lake.
Zhurong had his eyes on a very different body of water: the vestiges of an ancient ocean located in the northern hemisphere of Mars.
The god of fire
Zhurong’s rover takes its name from a mythical god of fire.
It was launched by the Chinese National Space Administration in 2020 and was active on Mars from 2021 to 2022
Zhurong is studying an area close to a series of ridges – described as a palehoreline – which extend for thousands of miles through Mars. The Paleshoreline were previously interpreted as the remains of a global ocean surrounding the northern third of Mars.
However, there are different opinions among scientists on this and more observations are needed.
On earth, the geological record of the oceans is distinctive. Modern oceans are only a few hundred millions of years. Yet the global record rock is full of deposits made by many older oceans, some billion years.
What is found below
To determine whether the rocks in the Planitia utopia are consistent with the depositation from an ocean, the Rover has collected data along a measured line of 0.8 miles (1.3 km) known as a transept on the edge of the pelvis. The transept was oriented perpendicular to the palehoreline. The goal was to understand what types of rock there are and what story they tell.
The Zhurong Rover used a technique called penetrating radar on the ground, which was 328 feet (100 m) below the surface. The data revealed many characteristics of the buried rocks, including their orientation.
The rocks entered along the transept contained many reflective layers that are visible from the penetrating radar to the ground up to at least 98 feet (30 m). All the layers also immerse themselves on the surface in the pelvis, far from Paleoshoreline. This geometry reflects exactly how sediments are deposited in the oceans on earth.
The penetrating radar on the ground also measured as much as the rocks are influenced by an electric field. The results showed that rocks are more likely to be sedimentary and are not volcanic flows, which can also form layers.
The study compared the Zhurong data collected by the Utopia plania with radar data penetrating the ground for different sedimentary environments on Earth.
The result of the comparison is clear: the rocks that Zhurong were a match for the coastal sediments deposited along the edge of an ocean.
Zhurong found a beach.
A wet Mars
The period of the Marzian history of Noachian, from 4.1 billion to 3.7 billion years ago, is the child for a wet Mars. There are abundant tests from the orbital images of valley networks and mineral maps that the surface of Noachian Mars had superficial water.
However, there are fewer tests for surface waters during the expert period, from 3.7 to 3 billion years ago. It is believed that splendid orbital images of large outflow channels in the terrestrial forms of the excess, including an area of canyons known as Kasei Valles, have been formed by catastrophic releases of underground waters, rather than stagnant water.
From this point of view, Mars seems to have cooled and dried by the time of the Esperian.
However, the results of Zhurong Rover of coastal deposits formed in an ocean can indicate that surface waters were stable on Mars longer than previously recognized. It could have lasted in the late period of the Esperian.
This can mean that the habitable environments, around an ocean, have extended to more recent times.
Aaron J. Cavosie is a senior teacher at the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Curtin University. Cavosie received funding from the Australian Research Council and the Space Science and Technology Center at Curtin University.
This article is republished by The conversation Under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
