(ORDO NEWS) — The georadar of the Chinese rover found impact craters and other geological structures five meters below the surface of the Red Planet.
The Martian rover Zhurong has discovered previously “invisible” small impact craters and other structures in the top five meters below the surface of the red planet.
Zhurong is the first Chinese rover on the Red Planet, named after a Chinese mythological future associated with fire and light.
A Chinese rover has been sent to Mars to study the topography and geology, study the Martian soil and see how much ice there is.
It is also tasked with examining minerals and rocks and conducting atmospheric sampling.
During rock scanning, Zhurong uses two different radar frequencies. The lower frequencies allow penetration up to 80 meters below the surface, but offer less detail.
High frequencies allow the rover to see structural features below the surface in more detail. The radar is capable of penetrating the surface by about 4.5 meters.
The ground-penetrating radar data will help scientists figure out what the interior of Mars is like and could shed light on the geological history of Mars.
After analyzing the data collected by the rover, the scientists identified several curved and tilted underground structures that they say are likely hidden impact craters.
They also found other underground objects, the origin of which is still not clear.
Radar analysis of deeper structures has revealed traces of sediment left over from past floods, but has shown no evidence of subsurface water presently.
Although the Chinese rover found no traces of water during its survey, this does not mean that it is not there. Mars can hide water in regions much deeper than a rover can see when it “penetrates” through the earth.
The researchers compared the data collected by the rover with data previously obtained by ground penetrating radar on the surface of the moon.
The comparison shows a clear difference in underground structures.
The small surface of Mars has several distinctive features that are clearly visible in the first 10 meters of radar images, while thin layers are visible in the first upper 10 meters of the surface of the Moon, but no signs of structures.
The researchers note that the edges of impact craters are visible deeper on the Moon, buried under a layer of fine dust 10 meters thick.
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