A significant discovery has been made beneath Mars’ equator: a large honeycomb pattern, similar to formations found near Earth’s poles. These crevasses, each approximately 70 meters long, are surrounded by mud and ice, each about 30 meters wide. Scientists estimate that this material is between 2 billion and 3.5 billion years old.
These patterns were identified from data sent back by China’s Zhurong rover, which is now no longer communicating. The rover traveled through a region known as the Utopia Plain, located north of Mars’ equator. On its journey of just over a kilometer towards the southern region of Mars, the rover’s radar detected a continuous pattern of 15 buried polygons, suggesting the possibility of more undiscovered patterns.
Comparison with Earth’s geology
On Earth, similar patterns are observed in regions such as Greenland, Iceland and Antarctica. These formations occur due to drastic changes in temperature that lead to soil contraction and fracturing. Ice and mud fill these cracks, preventing them from healing and causing the surface to split even further.
A comparable process on Mars, occurring between 2 billion and 3.5 billion years ago, may have resulted in the formation of these Martian chasms, which are considerably larger than any found on Earth. This discovery provides new evidence that suggests Mars once had water and a climate potentially habitable for life.
Furthermore, the presence of these patterns in tropical regions of Mars implies that these areas were once cold enough to cause fractures similar to those seen near Earth’s icy poles. This could support the theory that Mars had a significantly different axial tilt in the past, possibly up to forty degrees or more, around 5 million years ago. This variation in tilt complicates the traditional understanding of polar regions as cold and low-latitude areas as warm.
Implications for Mars’ climate history
William Rapin, a scientist at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie de Paris who was not involved in the study, recognizes the importance of this discovery for understanding Mars’ past. Rapin, part of a team that discovered similar mud cracks near Gale Crater explored by NASA’s Curiosity rover, emphasizes the difficulties of accessing similar ancient periods on Earth due to recycling of its surface. Mars, in contrast, preserves its layers well, offering a unique opportunity to investigate a period potentially favorable to the origin of life.
Mars’ axial tilt, or obliquity, has changed over the past 3.5 billion years, influencing its climate. The planet’s equator would be the hottest without tilting due to direct sunlight, but computer models suggest that Mars experienced excessive tilting a few million years ago, altering the distribution of sunlight throughout the year.
This would have resulted in prolonged periods of night reaching the equator. The tilt of Mars is known to vary more than Earth’s, having shifted by more than ten degrees in 100,000 years. This variation is thought to have contributed to dramatic climate changes, transforming Mars from a potentially habitable world into the arid landscape we see today.
The detection of the pattern of polygons 35 meters below the surface indicates that these formations developed over time but stopped abruptly. This suggests that Martian soil in the recent past did not experience similar temperature fluctuations, leading to the accumulation of layers over the cracks. The cessation of polygon formation could mark a period of significant climate change on Mars, possibly moving from a colder to a more temperate climate.
NASA’s Curiosity rover, which recently celebrated 4,000 days on Mars, is expected to explore terrain with large fractures visible from orbit next year. Rapin hopes to compare these with new polygons found on the Utopia Plain, hypothesizing that they may indicate an ancient extreme drought.
Research into this discovery was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
2023-12-11 00:31:02
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