The Chinese rover mission Zhurong successfully landed on Mars on May 15, 2021, making China the third country to do so. More impressively, China’s first Mars mission was a combination of orbiting, landing, and navigating.

Named after the fire god in Chinese mythology, Zhurong had departed Tianwen-1’s orbit and landed on a vast plain called Utopia Planitia near previous NASA missions. In this region, which is largely covered by volcanic material, Zhurong, traces of water discovered.

Traces of water that Zhurong found in the dunes

Water is considered 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 investigation of the existence of water on Mars, and they did also. The Zhurong Mars rover, which is designed to study the dunes in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars, has been found in the dunes of the red planet as a result of the discoveries and investigations. water molecules detected.

By observing four small dunes, Zhurong found that they were cracked and had ridges on their surface. These features are the little ones on the dunes. formed by the melting of water bags. According to the researchers, these water pockets were created 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. The researchers found those traces of water on the dunes Zhurong studied It was formed during an axial tilt change that occurred about 400,000 to 1.4 million years ago. they guess.

Zhurong’s findings show that water existed on Mars not only in ancient times, but also more recently. It also proves that water can exist not only in solid or gaseous form, but also in liquid form.