Scientists discover a huge beach that might have been found on Mars in the long-term ocean

Scientists use tracks and wanderers to find Dry streams, lakes and ditches exist Mars This hints at its past, but their robot cavalry has been working to prove that the Red Planet once had a real ocean.

A new study that uses data from China’s now-defunct homeless people provides the strongest evidence in waters that have long been around so far – more than just a temporary lake Formed by melted icebut the sea. These findings reveal what appears to be the ancient coastline of the ocean, covering about one-third of the Earth’s surface.

this New paperpublished in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencessuggest the earth space Neighbors had a warm and humid period that lasted tens of millions of years.

This Earth-like environment seems to increase the chances of life there. Although no one knows if Mars has ever lived, the existence of the ocean at least means this location LivableBenjamin Cardinas, a sediment geologist at Penn State University, said.

“Scientists who study the origins of life do think one of the main places it might start is that the beach is not much different from what we think we see here,” Cardinas told Mashable. “You have shallow water, air, land, and it’s the scientists at these interfaces that think that life might first surface on Earth.”

The new data comes from part of the China Astronomical-1 mission, which is part of the landing on Mars in May 2021. Six-round rovers are sent to investigate the utopia Planitia, away from the utopia, a far away from the area NASA‘ Curiosity and perseverance wanderer. In 1976, the US Viking 2 Lander was the same plain as the landing in 1976.

Collaboration between Chinese and American researchers It may be difficult In order to achieve, Wolf Amendment Founded in 2011. Federal law prevents NASA from working with China over concerns that space programs can use U.S. technology to enhance its weapons. But some American scientists contributed to the study without receiving any federal government funding. As far as China is concerned, China has made the data of mobile stations public, which is a requirement for publishing research.

According to satellite imagery, scientists have previously assumed that the utopia planitia in the northern hemisphere of Mars once held water. But this idea is still worth discussing because they lack underground evidence to confirm this evidence. Characteristics similar to coasts sit at different altitudes, so it is difficult to determine whether waters create them or something else, such as lava, wind-blown dunes or ancient rivers.

Zhurong Didn’t survive the Martian winter As planned for December 2022. But in the year before going to Kaput, it had already traveled about a mile on the Red Planet.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbit captures images of China’s cycle on the surface of the Red Planet, suggesting it has not “wake up” from the planned winter hibernation in 2022.
Credits: NASA / JPL-CALTECH / UARIZONA

At that time, the rover collected a large amount of data, including some from special instruments called ground penetration radar. The tool can measure the rebound signal by sending radio waves underground. This helps scientists identify and map different layers of rock and soil under the surface.

The data reveals the unique slope of underground materials, just like how waves accumulate sediment on Earth’s coast. These ancient beaches extend about 4300 feet (nearly a mile) and are buried 30 to 115 feet below the ground.

“It takes a long time to accumulate more than one kilometer of beach deposits on Earth, hundreds of thousands to millions of years,” Michael Manga, a geoscientist and co-author of the University of California, Berkeley, told Mashable. “So if we say that the process of running on Earth is also running on Mars at about the same speed, it means that the oceans have been there for a lot of time.”

From the new data, scientists can infer larger water cycles on Mars. To get the beach to crawl nearly a mile into the body of water, there will be long periods of tides, water and rivers feed the sediments into the ocean.

Utopian curated topographic landscape with hypothetical ancient oceans, colors with various blue shades depending on the depth of the water. The stars indicate the location of Zhurong Rover.
Credit: Illustrations by Robert Citron

Comics, long-term existence Ocean assumptionfound Zhurong data to be deeply satisfying.

“It’s just that you can take the rovers to Mars and look underground, which is incredible for me,” he said. “But, seeing something with structure, it’s coherent – I mean Similar on such a wide scale – it’s really exciting.”

Perseverance rover also detected the landing site of its former lake bed, Jezero Crater, inclined underground layers, but they could have been created by water or magma. A key difference between the radar data of the two wanderers is that the Jezero material has what is called a “high dielectric constant” – holding more charges. This may indicate that there is Volcanic rocks. On the other hand, Utopian-curated materials have a “low dielectric constant” and are likely to consist of a mixture of sand and pebbles, similar to what is found along many of the Earth’s coastlines.

Zhurong and Perseverance have different findings, reminding people that the environment can vary widely across the globe. Perseverance is about 3,000 miles from Zhurong, which is farther from New York and Los Angeles. A few months ago, a study on carbon-rich minerals Dafeng cratercuriosity is away from Zurong At least on the ground.

After landing on May 15, 2021, China’s Zhurong Rover took photos of its antennas and solar panels with a navigation camera.
Credits: CNS/CNSA/AFP/Getty Images

“It’s not surprising for me that you can look at different parts of Mars, and you’ll find this story more complicated,” Cardinas said. “At different times, the regions of Mars may vary.”

While new research helps confirm Mars’ past oceans, it also raises new questions – i.e., where All this water go? It’s frozen Under the surfacecollect it in the ice cap of the pole, or escape into space? The answer can help scientists understand the development of planets and whether this change is happening on Earth.

Mango said researchers may also want to consider further how gravity factors enter the beach to form. The gravity of Mars is 62% less than the Earthand scientists don’t know if this could fundamentally change the way beaches work. The knowledge gap may mean that the team misunderstood the coastline function. But of all possible explanations, it is probably best for collaborators to feel confident that a stable and vast ocean is likely to be.

“It would be interesting if it turns out that Mars does have a sea and never created life,” Manga said. “It would say how difficult it is to start life.”