China’s Zhurong rover mission successfully landed on Mars on May 15, 2021, making China the third country to do so. Even more impressive is that China’s first Mars mission combined orbiting, landing and navigating.
Named after the fire god in Chinese mythology, Zhurong had left the orbit of Tianwen-1 and landed on a vast plain called Utopia Planitia near previous NASA missions. In this region, which is mostly covered with volcanic materials, Zhurong discovered traces of water.
Traces of water that Zhurong found in the dunes
Water is considered to be one of the most important factors that increase the possibility of life on Mars, and the discoveries of the Zhurong Mars rover were seen as an important step in the research on the existence of water on Mars, and they did. The Zhurong Mars rover, which was designed to study the dunes in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars, detected water molecules in the dunes of the red planet as a result of the discoveries and researches.
By observing four small dunes, Zhurong found that they had fissured strata and ridges on their surfaces. These features were formed as a result of the melting of small pockets of water on the dunes. According to the researchers, these water pockets were formed by the condensation of water vapor from the polar regions of Mars.
The transport of water vapor from the poles to low latitudes is related to the shifting of Mars’ axial tilt. The tilt of Mars fluctuates over time, causing the polar ice caps to melt or grow. Researchers estimate that the watermarks on the dunes that Zhurong studied were formed during an axial tilt change that occurred about 400,000 to 1.4 million years ago.
Zhurong’s findings show that water existed on Mars not only in ancient times, but more recently. It also proves that water can exist not only in solid or gaseous form, but also in liquid form.
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