Underground Water Structures on Mars? Yes, Science Thinks It’s Possible

Zhurong has been roving around Mars since May, but it just made a massive discovery.

Transcript

00:00NASA's perseverance and curiosity might get all the attention, but China also has

00:08a rover roving around on Mars.

00:10It's called Zurong, and it recently made a momentous discovery, finding signs of more

00:15recent water movement under the surface of Mars.

00:18The rover used a radar to scan the Martian subsurface, examining an area of the southern

00:22utopia Planitia, which is believed to have once been a vast ocean, finding signs of an

00:27underground water system some 262 feet down.

00:31Researcher at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences,

00:35Chen Ling, said about the find, quote,

00:37Previously it was thought that Mars had kept getting drier, continuing to lose water over

00:41the last 3 billion years.

00:43We found that it may not be that simple, explaining the more recently in Mars past than previously

00:47believed.

00:48There may have been more activity with regards to the water cycle, with Ling adding,

00:52This also explains why our rover's coverage in the south of utopia Planitia has found so

00:56many signs of water.

00:57They say this find is novel, and that no other Mars missions have discovered such a layered

01:01underground structure on the Red Planet.