(ORDO NEWS) — China‘s Zhurong rover’s ground-penetrating radar is capable of detecting shallow impact craters and other geological structures as deep as five meters. Images of the interior of the Red Planet, taken by the rover.
The Zhurong rover was sent to Mars as part of China’s Tianwen-1 mission.
Launched in July 2020, the rover landed on the surface of the Red Planet on May 15, 2021. He was sent to the Utopia Plain, located in the northern hemisphere of Mars.
The region was chosen because it is near suspected ancient coastlines and other interesting surface features where the rover could look for evidence of water or ice.
After landing, the Jurong rover traveled about 1.9 km south, photographing rocks, sand dunes and impact craters, and collecting ground-based radar data along the way.
Penetrating radar detects structures below the surface by sending out electromagnetic pulses that bounce back off objects it passes over.
The rover uses two radar frequencies – a lower frequency that reaches a depth of about 80 meters with less detail, and a higher frequency that shows more detail but reaches a depth of about 4.5 meters.
The researchers saw several underground structures in the Martian soil, which they identified as buried impact craters, as well as other slanted objects with a less certain origin.
Scientists did not see any signs of water or ice in the top five meters of the ground.
Radar images of deeper structures have revealed layers of sediment left behind by flood and sediment episodes in the past, but also found no evidence of current water.
This does not exclude the possibility of water occurrence deeper than eighty meters recorded by the radar.
In a new article, researchers compare data from Mars with data collected on the Moon. The shallow surface of Mars contains several distinct features that are visible on radar.
On the Moon, the upper 10 meters of the surface show no signs of impact crater-like structures, despite the fact that the moon has been hit by a meteorite bombardment.
However, the walls of impact craters are observed at greater depths. The difference may be in the atmosphere.
On the Moon, it is absent, so the surface of the satellite is bombarded with a large number of tiny micrometeorites, which recycle the surface, destroying objects of a smaller scale and leaving behind thin layers of ejecta.
In contrast, the surface of Mars does not experience as many impacts because smaller objects burn up in the atmosphere.
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