“New Study Reveals Mars Was Once a Watery, Salt-rich World: Zhurong Rover Findings”

Sunday, April 30 2023 – 11:00 WIB

LIVE Techno – Scientists studying data from China’s Zhurong rover discovered for the first time cracked layers in the tiny Martian dunes, which imply that the Red Planet was a watery, salt-rich world some 400,000 years ago.

Since landing in the northern hemisphere of Mars in May 2021, the rover has glided close to four crescent-shaped sand dunes in the Utopia Planitia region to investigate the composition of its surface.

These four wind-formed geological features are covered in thin, fractured crust and ridges everywhere, formed thanks to the melting of small pockets of ‘modern water’ between 1.4 million years and 400,000 years ago, according to a new paper. .

“This is a more recent time in the history of Mars,” said Xiaoguang Qin, a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and author of the new study.

Scientists have long thought that ancient Mars harbored abundant liquid water some three billion years ago. But dramatic climate change froze most of the water as ice locked up at the poles and left large parts of the planet dry.

The dunes that Zhurong explored near her landing site in the northern hemisphere of the planet – far from the north pole – are only about 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 meters) long and about 3 feet (1 m) high.