All articles tagged with #martian climate
Recent images from ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter suggest that dust avalanches and dry non-seasonal factors like meteoroid impacts and winds are significant drivers of the dark streaks, or recurring slope lineae, on Mars, helping to clarify their mysterious origins and offering insights into the planet's dynamic environment.
China's Zhurong rover, equipped with a ground-penetrating radar system, has discovered irregular polygonal wedges beneath Mars' surface, believed to be formed by freeze-thaw cycles or cooling lava. These formations, found in Utopia Planitia, suggest a strong paleoclimatic variability on Mars billions of years ago. The rover's mission, which lasted longer than intended, aimed to study Mars' topography and composition but has entered hibernation and hasn't been heard from since.
The Chinese Zhurong rover has discovered evidence of salty liquid water droplets on Mars, indicating that it may have had snow and frost as recently as 400,000 years ago. This is the first time evidence of liquid water has been found on the planet. The discovery provides key observational evidence of liquid water at Martian low latitudes, where surface temperatures are relatively warmer and more suitable for life than at high latitudes. The Zhurong rover is part of China’s Tianwen-1 Mars exploration mission and landed on Mars in 2021.