If you’ve been thinking about twisting someone’s arm to admit that there is liquid water on Mars, well, maybe it would be a good idea. Of course, metaphorically speaking! China has now discovered evidence that water exists in liquid form on our neighboring planet, which is a huge achievement considering that no living organism should be able to survive without the famous substance that covers over two thirds of the Earth’s surface.
In other words, we have new reasons to believe that extraterrestrial life could exist on Mars, or at least it might have existed at some point in the distant past of the planet.
China’s Zhurong rover finds evidence of liquid water on Mars
The Zhurong rover of China has spent months on the Martian surface, and it seems that it was totally worth it. SciTechDaily reveals that a new study published in Science Advances claims that Zhurong has found evidence that water exists on Mars in liquid form. The low Martian latitudes represent the places where liquid water was found.
Although we can’t be sure yet that there is anything alive on the Red Planet, the new discovery contradicts what astronomers initially thought, that water could be present only in solid and gaseous forms on Mars.
Prof. Qin explained as SciTechDaily quotes:
According to the measured meteorological data by Zhurong and other Mars rovers, we inferred that these dune surface characteristics were related to the involvement of liquid saline water formed by the subsequent melting of frost/snow falling on the salt-containing dune surfaces when cooling occurs.
One interesting fact that not any scientist will admit is that there is a slight theoretical possibility that life forms that might exist on other planets don’t necessarily need liquid water to survive. Nobody can fully predict how alien life forms function if they truly are there, somewhere. This is another reason that finding liquid water on another planet is no guarantee that there’s also something alive there.
