Chinese rover makes surprise discovery about liquid water on Mars – Big Think

A Chinese rover hasfound evidencethat there was liquid water on Mars far more recently than we thought a discovery that could affect plans to one day colonize the Red Planet.

Liquid water on Mars:Based on past research, scientists believed there was liquid water on Mars up until about 3 billion years ago the point at which the planets dry Amazonian epoch began and the geological era before it (the Hesperian epoch) ended.

Hydrated minerals and ground ice can be used as the important water resource on Mars.

Understanding the history of liquid water on Mars can help us predict how much water remains on the Red Planet, in the form of ice or hydrated minerals. We might then be able to use that existingwater on Marsto support crewed missions.

One of the most important resources for human explorers is water, leadstudyauthor Yang Liu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)told CNN. Hydrated minerals, which contain structural water, and ground ice can be used as the important water resource on Mars.

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Whats new?Afterlanding on Marsin May 2021, Chinas Zhurong rover began collecting data on soil samples. When researchers from CAS and the University of Copenhagen analyzed some of that data, they found evidence of water in samples that were just 700 million years old.

This suggests that the area being explored by the Zhurong rover Mars Utopia Planitia, a plain in a huge impact crater was home to a substantial amount of liquid water at a time when we thought Mars surface was already dried up.

One of the major things well have to find out is how extensive these young water-bearing minerals are.

Looking ahead:The data used for this study was collected during Zhurongs first 92 Martian days (sols) of exploration. The rover has now spent 350 sols on Mars, traveling more than a mile across its surface.

The whole time its been collecting data that could further inform our understanding of liquid water on Mars.

One of the major things well have to find out and that I look forward to seeing from the Zhurong rover is how extensive these young water-bearing minerals are, Eva Scheller, a planetary scientist at CalTech, who wasnt involved in the study,told Space. Are they common or uncommon in these young rocks?

This article was originally published on our sister site, Freethink.

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Chinese rover makes surprise discovery about liquid water on Mars - Big Think