Scientists studying data from China’s Zhurong rover have published new findings supporting a decades-old hypothesis that a vast ancient ocean once covered northern Mars billions of years ago.
Since landing in 2021 in one of Mars’ largest and oldest basins, known as Utopia Planitia, the Zhurong rover has traveled around 2 kilometers, examining the geology of its surroundings for signs of water or ice.
By combining observations from the rover’s onboard cameras and ground-penetrating radar with remote sensing data from orbiting satellites, Bo Wu of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and his colleagues identified several water-related features near the rover’s landing site.
These include crater-like pits, troughs, sediment channels, and mud volcano formations, which the team interprets as evidence of an ancient shoreline.
Chinese scientists estimate that the ocean formed around 3.7 billion years ago, later froze and etched the terrain, and disappeared approximately 3.4 billion years ago.
However, Bo Wu emphasizes that his team does not claim their findings as definitive proof of a Martian ocean; such a claim would require a mission that could bring rock samples back from Mars for further analysis.
Photo: CNSA
