Zhurong rover finds evidence of landscape on Mars earlier weathered by water: Report

China's Zhurong Mars rover, which landed on the red planet in May last year, has stumbled upon evidence that its current exploration site endured long periods of weathering by wind and even water. The rover touched down in 2021 at a location named Utopia Planitia which is a large plain in the northern lowlands on Mars. Ever since its landing, the rover has travelled over a kilometre on the red planet and has collected data on the geological structure and surface composition of Mars through soil and dust samples.

Talking about the recent data, Joel Davis at the Natural History Museum in London said that many scientists believe that the Utopia Planitia hosted a massive ocean billions of years ago, something which makes the theory interesting. "Hopefully, as Zhurong continues to explore, it will be able to help answer this question (about an ocean on Mars) that has been plaguing scientists for decades", New Scientist reported. 

What did the rover find?

The thing that makes scientists believe about an ancient ocean in Zhurong's landing site is the presence of etchings and grooves on one side which hints towards intense wind erosion from sand. Another evidence is the flaky texture of rocks in the area which, scientists say, only arises from interactions with water. Several wind-sculpted structures called mega ripples spanning a few metres was also found in the area by the rover. 

Stating that Zhurong's data reveals much more complicated data than the Viking 2 Mars mission, which ended in 1980, John Bridges at the University of Leicester, UK says that the new evidence has caused a paradigm shift towards a sedimentary Mars, New Scientist reported. 

Does life ever existed on Mars?

Although water is considered a major factor in the origin of life, scientists have not yet found any convincing biological evidence on the red planet. While scientists are still optimistic about finding signs of ancient life on the red planet, a recent study conducted over a 4-billion-year old meteorite from Mars shows no evidence of Martian life. Conducted by a team from the Carnegie Institution for Science, this study published in January rejects a previous NASA-led study when scientists claimed that rock had organic compounds which appeared to have been left behind by living creatures. Tap here to know more about the study.

Image: CNSA