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The Red Planet -

Our closest neighbor in the solar system, Mars, is dry and dusty. There is not a drop of water to be found the whole planet over.

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Millennia gone by -

Astronomers believe, however, that this wasn’t always the case. Indeed, they think that, billions of years ago, the Red Planet was a lot warmer and wetter than it is today.

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No consensus -

Although the presence of water on ancient Mars is largely uncontested, astronomers disagree about how much water may have existed and in what form.

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The prospect of an ocean -

For some time now, certain researchers have suspected that Mars was once home to a northern ocean with waves that lapped against sandy beaches.

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New evidence -

And according to an article recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they may now have evidence.

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Decades-old search -

The search for evidence of an ocean on ancient Mars is nothing new. In fact, it has been ongoing since the 1970s.

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Early missions -

The first missions to spot features that may be indicative of a Martian body of water were NASA’s Mariner 9 and Viking 2.

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The Hesperian Period -

Both of these spacecrafts captured images of sections of Mars’ surface that are believed to date back to the Hesperian Period (3.7 billion to 2.9 billion years ago).

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Mariner 9 -

The giant canyons captured by Mariner 9 are generally considered to suggest the presence of water.

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Bursts of groundwater -

However, they are thought to be the result of huge bursts of groundwater to the surface, rather than evidence of standing water.

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Viking 2 -

The images captured by Viking 2, however, provided evidence of what appeared to be a shoreline in the planet’s northern hemisphere.

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Uneven shoreline -

In stark contrast to the shorelines here on Earth, however, the suspected shoreline on Mars appears to be very uneven.

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Large variations -

Indeed, images show a jagged line with height variations of up to 6.2 miles (10 kilometers).

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Result of volcanic activity -

According to experts from the University of California, Berkeley, the uneven shoreline may be explained by volcanic activity that has disrupted it over time.

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Until recently -

Until the most recent study was published, however, there was no conclusive evidence of an ocean ever existing on Mars.

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The Zhurong rover -

It was the aim of China’s Zhurong rover, and its ground-penetrating radar system, to change that.

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Landing on Utopia Planitia -

The Zhurong rover landed on the Red Planet in May 2021, and it worked there for a year. Its work site was Utopia Planitia.

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Series of ridges -

Utopia Planitia is a plain with the largest known impact basin on Mars. It is located near a series of ridges in the planet’s northern hemisphere.

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Suspected shoreline -

These ridges are the area of Mars that scientists have long since suspected may have been a shoreline.

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Work of the rover -

When the Zhurong rover landed, it traveled along the ridges, collecting data up to 260 feet (80 meters) beneath the Martian surface.

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Data at depth -

The most interesting data provided by the rover was collected between 32.8 and 114.8 feet (10 and 35 meters) down.

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Beach-like structures -

At these depths below the surface, the rover detected sedimentary structures similar to those found on layered beaches on Earth.

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Size of the particles -

The rover also measured the size of the particles, which matched the size of grains of sand.

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Likenesses -

In considering what these structures most resembled, the study’s authors thought about sand dunes or lava flows.

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Coastal sediments -

However, they ultimately decided that the structures most closely resembled coastal sediments found on Earth.

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Foreshore deposits -

According to the study’s authors, the rover may have found what experts refer to as "foreshore deposits."

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How they form -

These take millions of years to form; they are the result of sediments being carried by tides and waves sloping downwards toward an ocean.

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Suggestive of waves -

This discovery jumped out at the researchers because the presence of foreshore deposits suggests there were once waves.

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Dynamic interface -

And if there were waves, this means there was a dynamic interface between air and water–the very scenario that first gave rise to life on Earth.

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Implications -

Scientists are still working out all the potential implications of this new study, but some believe it may result in a major rethinking of Mars’s climate history.

Sources: (CNN)

See also: Fascinating facts you didn't know about the planet Mercury

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