China's Mars rover has uncovered underground polygon structures buried beneath the Red Planet's surface

[orangecrush]

China's Mars rover has uncovered underground polygon structures buried beneath the Red Planet's surface — and it looks like they're related to Mars' long-lost water, too.

In a new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, a team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) say that using data from the Zhurong rover's ground-penetrating radar capabilities, they've found several mysterious subterranean polygons located some 35 feet below its surface that are likely formed by ice.

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Using this high-tech radar, the rover combed Utopia Planitia, a large plain in the planet's northern hemisphere where Zhurong's inactive husk still rests, to see what was happening below. The CAS team found, per Zhurong's readings, a total of 16 "polygonal wedges" in an area of about three-quarters of a square mile, "suggesting a wide distribution of such terrain under Utopia Plainitia," the Nature Astronomy paper explains.

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Remarkably similar to the "patterned ground" phenomenon found here on Earth, these Martian polygons could not only provide more evidence that the Red Planet used to be home to abundant water, but also that it used to be home to life as well.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-mars-polygons