Above: Photograph of China’s Zhurong rover on the surface of Mars. Credit: China News Service
China’s Zhurong rover has uncovered something incredible on Mars—evidence of an ancient beach buried beneath the surface. Using ground-penetrating radar, the rover detected sloping layers of sand, much like a shoreline shaped by ocean waves billions of years ago. This discovery adds weight to the idea that Utopia Basin, the largest known impact crater in the solar system, may have once held a vast Martian ocean. While Mars is now a dry and dusty world, findings like this bring us closer to understanding its watery past—and whether it may have once supported life.