Chinese rover finds evidence of 3.42 billion year old ocean on Mars

Many theses It has been confirmed that there used to be an ocean on Mars. The European Space Agency including NASA has discovered evidence of this. Now with the help of China’s Zhurong rover, scientists have collected new evidence. These show that there was an ocean on Mars billions of years ago. of ndtv Report According to, the Zhurong rover landed in the northern lowlands of Mars in the year 2021. His spacecraft had orbited the planet.

The data collected during this period has revealed geological features indicating the presence of an ancient coastline there. To gather evidence, the rover analyzed a rock at a place named Utopia Planitia.

Researchers have said that data from China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and a six-wheeled robotic rover indicate that Mars may have had an ocean of water even when it was already cold and dry. and had lost most of its atmosphere.

Researchers have identified surface features in the existing area such as troughs, sediment channels and mud volcano formations that indicate the presence of a beach.

Planetary scientist Bo Wu of Hong Kong Polytechnic University says that we estimate that the flood in the Utopia Planitia area on Mars occurred about 3.68 billion years ago. Researchers say that it seems that the ocean became extinct about 3.42 billion years ago.

Study co-author Sergei Krasilnikov has said that a large amount of silt was deposited in that sea water, due to which the structure of today’s sediment is visible. According to the report, like other planets of our solar system, Mars was also formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Then there was an atmosphere and oceans also existed on the planet.