Rover Discovers Evidence of Giant Ocean on Mars

China's Zhurong Mars rover, which has been exploring the planet's arid surface since May 2021, has made a fascinating discovery: ancient, "vacation-style" beaches. The findings, detailed in a new paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offer the "clearest evidence yet" that Mars once contained huge bodies of water — and therefore could've been amenable to life. "We’re finding places on Mars that used to look like ancient beaches and ancient river deltas," said Penn State assistant professor of geology and coauthor Benjamin Cardenas in a statement. "We found evidence for wind, waves, no shortage of sand — a proper, vacation-style beach." The research adds to a growing body of evidence that the Red Planet was once dominated by water, much like Earth today. Cardenas and his collaborators have previously found evidence of lush streams of water carving channels and craters into the planet's surface millions of years ago. Now it sounds like Mars wa ... Read full article.