Chinese Rover Finds Evidence of Ancient Floods on Mars

The findings suggest that water flowed in biblical proportions on the Red Planet.

The study, which was published in the journal Nature, shows how researchers used the first-ever radar imager data from a Mars rover to peer below the Red Planet's surface.

Radio Vision

Using ground-penetrating radio waves that can "see" as deep as 100 meters underground, imagers like the one Zhurong is equipped with bounce signals off of whatever lies beneath, which in turn reflects back, with differing degrees of resolution, what solid or liquid objects are down there

The imager didn't find any water in the 80 vertical meters it surveyed, but it did find two horizontal layers that reflected back large boulders.

The first and youngest layers were between 10 and 30 meters down and the older, deeper, and thicker layers were between 30 to 80 meters in depth. The deeper layer's flood is thought to have taken place around three billion years ago during a time of glacier activity.

Floodsy

While this is certainly an exciting update in the Mars waters saga, study co-author Chen Ling did include an important caveat by noting that they could only detect the radar outlines of the belowground structures and not test them physically.

The first radar imager data from China's Mars rover is a huge step in figuring out how Mars got to be so dead.

There are hints of catastrophic floods found by China's Mars Rover.

There is evidence of an ancient ocean on Mars.