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SCIENTISTS DISCOVER POSSIBLE CLUES TO ALIEN LIFE ON MARS
This may not be the most apparent destination for a vacation.
But
Mars
once featured sunny, sandy shores with calm, rippling waters, as indicated by a recent research paper.
Scientists have found indications of a ‘getaway-like’ setting on Mars, even though there appears to be no observable liquid water present.
The surface of Mars as we see it today.
A global group of researchers utilized information from
China
The Zhurong Mars rover aims to uncover buried layers of rocks beneath the Martian surface, which strongly indicate the existence of an ancient ocean in the northern region.
The latest study provides the strongest proof to date that the planet previously had a substantial amount of water and a more hospitable setting for life, according to the scientists.
The Zhurong rover
landed on Mars
In 2021, within the region called Utopia Planitia, it transmitted geological information about its environment, aiming to find evidence of past water or ice presence.
Unlike other rovers it came equipped with ground-penetrating radar which allowed it to explore the planet’s subsurface, using both low and high-frequency radar to penetrate the Martian soil and identify buried rock formations.
By studying the underground sedimentary deposits, scientists are now able to piece together a more complete picture of the planet’s history.
When the team reviewed radar data, it revealed a similar layered structure to beaches on Earth.
They observed ‘foreshore’ deposits, which are inclined layers sloping toward the ocean. These forms arise as tidal movements and wave actions transport sediment into extensive bodies of water.
When comparing the Martian data with radar images of coastal areas on Earth, the team discovered remarkable resemblances.
The dip angles measured on Mars lie squarely within the range found in coastal sedimentary formations on Earth.
The discovery indicates that Mars was once a much wetter place than it is today, further supporting the hypothesis of a past ocean that
encompassed a significant area around the north pole of the planet
, the researchers said.
The research additionally offers fresh insights into the development of Mars’ environment, indicating that a habitable phase characterized by warmth and moisture could have lasted for as long as hundreds of million years.
Benjamin Cardenas, a co-author from Penn State University, stated, “We’re
discovering locations on Mars where old shorelines of ancient seas once stood and where former river deltas existed
.
‘We discovered signs of wind, waves, an abundance of sand — essentially, a perfect beach for a vacation.’
Professor Michael Manga, from the University of California, Berkeley, also contributed to the paper.
‘The structures don’t look like sand dunes,’ he said. ‘They don’t look like an impact crater. They don’t look like lava flows. That’s when we started thinking about oceans.
‘The orientation of these features are parallel to what the old shoreline would have been. They have both the right orientation and the right slope to support the idea that there was an ocean for a long period of time to accumulate the sand-like beach.’
The research was documented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
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