Zhurong has been roving around Mars since May, but it just made a massive discovery.
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00:00NASA's perseverance and curiosity might get all the attention, but China also has a rover
00:08roving around on Mars.
00:10It's called Zhurong, and it recently made a momentous discovery, finding signs of more
00:15recent water movement under the surface of Mars.
00:18The rover used a radar to scan the Martian subsurface, examining an area of the southern
00:22Utopia Planitia, which is believed to have once been a vast ocean, finding signs of an
00:27underground water system some 262 feet down.
00:31Researcher at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences,
00:35Chen Ling, said about the find, quote, Previously it was thought that Mars had kept getting
00:39drier, continuing to lose water over the last three billion years.
00:43We found that it may not be that simple.
00:45Explaining that more recently in Mars passed than previously believed, there may have been
00:48more activity with regards to the water cycle, with Ling adding, This also explains why our
00:53rover's coverage in the south of Utopia Planitia has found so many signs of water.
00:57They say this find is novel, and that no other Mars missions have discovered such a layered
01:01underground structure on the red planet.