A continent hidden on the red planet? This is the hypothesis of a team of Franco-American researchers.
according to Sciences and future, a team of French and American planetologists tried to understand how the planet Mars was formed and they think they have discovered that it hides a continent beneath its surface.
A revolution since until then, specialists estimated that only the Earth had continents, among the planets of the solar system. “The fact of detecting on Mars vestiges of such a formation therefore comes not only to question our knowledge of the geological history of our neighboring rubiconde, but also to suggest that it and our planet Earth may have a past much more similar than we thought, “says the popular science monthly.
To make this discovery, the researchers made a simulation consisting in smoothing the surface of the planet, therefore by removing great heights and great depths. “We wondered what Mars looked like before the formation of large impact basins and volcanic structures, in other words 4.2 billion years ago”, explained in a more scientific language, Sylvain Bouley teacher- researcher in charge of the study, at Sciences et Avenir.
Following this experiment, an area of the planet appeared thicker than the others, by 10 or 15 kilometers. A discovery that calls for other questions: has this continent formed in the same way as those present on Earth? Is there plate tectonics on the red planet?
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