This photo released on June 11, 2021 by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) shows a selfie of China’s first Mars rover Zhurong with the landing platform. (Xinhua/CNSA)
BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) — The Zhurong rover’s recent discovery in the sand dunes of Mars sheds light on the geological and climate changes that the planet underwent around 400,000 years ago, shedding new light on the study of climate evolution on Mars, says a study published on Thursday (6/7) in the journal Nature.
Mars is the planet most similar to Earth in the solar system. The study of the evolution of Mars is thought to provide a reference for Earth’s future.
Wind-blown sedimentary activity is the most important geological process on Mars since the late Amazon period, because these sediments record the climatic environment characteristics and climate change processes on modern Mars.
The research team from the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), the Institute of Geology and Geophysics and the Tibetan Plateau Research Institute under the auspices of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, collaborated with their colleagues at Brown University, USA. The researchers used the Tianwen-1 orbiter’s high-resolution camera and the Zhurong rover’s field and multispectral cameras, a surface composition analyzer, and meteorological gauges to obtain data from the Martian surface.
They analyzed wind direction and absolute model ages of Martian dunes in the southern Utopian Plain near the Zhurong landing site by studying surface structure and the size-frequency distribution of impact craters.
Their findings suggest that the region likely experienced climate change marked by a change in wind direction around 400,000 years ago, coinciding with the end of an ice age on Mars, said Li Chunlai, a NAOC researcher who led the study.
The wind direction in the area shifted nearly 70 degrees from northeast to northwest, eroding the light barchan dunes into dark longitudinal dunes, Li said.
This study predicts that climate change is caused by changes in the tilt of Mars.
The study helps improve our understanding of Mars’ climate evolution, and may provide a reference for predictions of Earth’s future climate change, Li said. Finished
Contribute by Xinhua
Liu Yiwei, Yu Fei
2023-07-09 04:18:00
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