The Chinese Mars rover "Zhurong" studied sand dunes on Mars before its "death" and made an exciting discovery there.
BEIJING -- China has just explained why the Mars rover Zhurong failed to wake up after a planned hibernation, when a study is released using data the rover sent to Earth before it died.
As the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) writes in a statement, the "Zhurong" rover has found evidence of water on dunes on Mars.
The study was
published in the journal
Science Advances .
Previous studies had repeatedly shown that there was once water on Mars.
However, when the red planet lost its atmosphere, the climate changed dramatically - today it is difficult for liquid water to exist on Mars.
Among other things, this has to do with the very low atmospheric pressure on the red planet.
Liquid water can exist on the surface of Mars only at high temperatures and for a few hours only in low-lying areas, mostly located in the northern hemisphere.
Chinese rover surveys Martian dunes
But in the data that "Zhurong" sent to Earth, the researchers led by Qin Xiaoguang from CAS found something new: evidence for the presence of liquid water at low latitudes on Mars.
Using several of the rover's cameras, the research group was able to discover crusts, cracks, granulation and a striped track on the dune surfaces on Mars, among other things.
The researchers also examined the surface layer of the dunes using spectral analysis.
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The Chinese rover "Zhurong".
© CNSA / Zuma Wire / Imago Images
"From the meteorological data measured by 'Zhurong' and other Mars rovers, we concluded that these dune surface features are related to the involvement of liquid saline water produced by the melting of frost and snow that falls on the saline dune surfaces as they cool." , Qin explained in the CAS release.
Dunes on Mars are said to be 400,000 to 1.4 million years old
The age of the dunes is estimated by researchers to be between 400,000 and 1.4 million years.
At that time, conditions on Mars were already what they are today: rivers and lakes had long since dried up.
Despite this, there appears to have been an interaction between the dunes and frost or snow at the time, the researchers believe.
"We think it might have been a small amount... no more than a film of water on the surface," Qin told
ABC News
.
These things were discovered on Mars - they don't belong there
These things were discovered on Mars - they don't belong there
In fact, the Chinese rover didn't directly find water in the form of snow or frost - using computer simulations and observations from other rovers, the Chinese researchers concluded that even today, Mars may still have conditions where there is water at certain times gives.
"This is important to understand the evolutionary history of the Martian climate, to search for a habitable environment and to obtain important clues for the future search for life," emphasizes Qin.
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Rubric list image: © CNSA / Zuma Wire / Imago Images
