Across the cold plains of Utopia Planitia, China's Zhurong rover has uncovered something quietly extraordinary: gypsum crystals formed 760 million years ago that may hold sealed pockets of the very brine from which they crystallized. This discovery does not merely confirm that Mars once had water — it suggests the planet held onto liquid water far longer than science had imagined, extending the window in which life might have found a foothold. In the patient geometry of a crystal, Mars may have preserved its own autobiography, waiting for instruments precise enough to read it.
Zhurong rover finds ancient Martian gypsum crystals that may preserve water chemistry
Science & Space