Water could be more widespread and recent on Mars than previously thought, based on observations of Martian sand dunes by China’s rover.
The finding highlights new, potentially fertile areas in the warmer regions of Mars where conditions might be suitable for life to exist, although more study is needed.
Friday’s news comes days after mission leaders said that the Zhurong rover has yet to wake up since going into hibernation for the Martian winter nearly a year ago.
Photo: Reuters
Its solar panels are likely covered with dust, choking off its power source and possibly preventing it from operating again, said Zhang Rongqiao (張榮橋), the mission’s chief designer.
Before Zhurong fell silent, it observed salt-rich dunes with cracks and crusts, which researchers said were likely mixed with melting morning frost or snow as recently as a few hundred thousand years ago.
Their estimated date range for when the cracks and other dune features formed in Mars’ Utopia Planitia, a vast plain in the northern hemisphere: some time after 1.4 million to 400,000 years ago or even younger.
Conditions during that period were similar to now on Mars, with rivers and lakes dried up and no longer flowing as they did billions of years earlier.
Studying the structure and chemical makeup of these dunes can provide insights into “the possibility of water activity” during this period, the Beijing-based team wrote in a study published in Science Advances.
“We think it could be a small amount ... no more than a film of water on the surface,” coauthor Qin Xiaoguang (秦小光), of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geology and Geophysics, said in an e-mail.
The rover did not detect any water in the form of frost or ice, but Qin said that computer simulations and observations by other spacecraft on Mars indicate that even now at certain times of year, conditions could be suitable for water to appear.
What is notable about the study is how young the dunes are, said Frederic Schmidt, a planetary geologist at the University of Paris-Saclay, who was not part of the study.
“This is clearly a new piece of science for this region,” he said.
Small pockets of water from thawing frost or snow, mixed with salt, likely resulted in the small cracks, hard crusty surfaces, loose particles and other dune features such as depressions and ridges, the Chinese scientists said.
They ruled out wind as a cause, as well as frost made of carbon dioxide, which makes up the bulk of Mars’ atmosphere.
Martian frost has been observed since NASA’s 1970s Viking missions, but these light dustings of morning frost were thought to occur in certain locations under specific conditions.
The rover has now provided “evidence that there may be a wider distribution of this process on Mars than previously identified,” said Mary Bourke, an expert in Mars geology at Trinity College Dublin.
However small this watery niche, it could be important for identifying habitable environments, she said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS