China’s Mars rover discovers possible shoreline of ancient ocean

China’s Mars rover, Zhurong, has discovered a possible shoreline of an ancient ocean on the red planet, coming off the heels of an exciting development from NASA.

The rover reported the findings from the planet’s northern hemisphere.

It offers credibility to the long-running theory that an ocean covered the Martian north billions of years ago.

This discovery comes three years after Zhurong landed in 2021.

DISCOVER SBX CARS: The global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie

What China’s Mars rover found on the planet’s northern hemisphere

Since 2021, Zhurong has traveled about 1.24 miles searching for signs of water or ice.

It did this by combining observations from onboard cameras and ground-penetrating radar from orbiting satellites.

Bo Wu and his colleagues at Hong Kong Polytechnic University spotted water-related features around the rover’s landing area.

Mud volcano formations and crater-liked pitted cones were taken as evidence of an ancient coastline.

The scientists have estimated that the composition of surface deposits suggests the water existed around 3.68 billion years ago, as reported by space.com.

These finds were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

It’s thought at around this time, water-related minerals such as hydrated silica began forming on the ocean bed.

The ocean then froze for between 10,000 and 100,000 years.

This led to the coastline being etched into the landscape, before it dried around 260 million years later.

What are the wider implications of this discovery – and what did NASA previously find?

Wu told New Scientist: “The findings not only provide further evidence to support the theory of a Martian ocean but also present, for the first time, a discussion on its probable evolutionary scenario.”

In short, because life on Earth began in the oceans, there’s a possibility the same occurred on our neighboring planet.

However, not everybody is quite so convinced that Zhurong has found an ancient shoreline.

Benjamin Cardenas from Pennsylvania State University said that billions of years of erosion would have eradicated any shoreline.

This is a point Wu agreed with, but he argued that asteroid strikes could have possibly resurfaced the shoreline spotted by the rover.

Some scientists are of the opinion that some of the ocean disappeared underground.

Data from NASA’s Insight lander discovered enough water to cover Mars was stored in the tiny cracks and pores of the planet.

It wasn’t proof of life, but taken as a spot that could sustain life in theory.

With new data coming out constantly, is it only a matter of time before we start planning a move to Mars?

But don’t pack your suitcase just yet – scientists have warned of a strange change that could occur should humans try to go Martian.