NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover successfully collected its first pair of rock samples from a Martian boulder, and scientists are already gaining new insights into the geological history of the landing site.
, Jezero Crater contains high concentrations of calcium, aluminum, and magnesium, indicating the presence of sediments with clays and carbonates. On Earth, such minerals form by chemical alteration of older rocks by water.
But it was not clear how long liquid water persisted inside the crater, either as flash floods, filling the impact crater and drying up in the space of just a few years, or as a lake feed by groundwater for millions of years. The level of alteration that scientists see in the rock sampled by Perseverance suggests that water was present for a long time.
The rover will spend the next few weeks around Rochette to complete his investigations before moving to its next target, a series of ridges covered by sand dunes, boulders, and rock shards just 656 feet away and named South Séítah,Perseverance will collect rock samples, analyze their chemical properties, seal them into containers and leave them behind to be picked up at a later time.
, the mission’s program scientist. “One day, we may be able to work out the sequence and timing of the environmental conditions that this rock’s minerals represent. This will help answer the big-picture science question of the history and stability of liquid water on Mars.” I'm a freelance geologist working mostly in the Eastern Alps. I graduated in 2007 with a project studying how permafrost, that´s frozen soil, is reacting to the moreI'm a freelance geologist working mostly in the Eastern Alps. I graduated in 2007 with a project studying how permafrost, that´s frozen soil, is reacting to the more visible recent changes of the alpine environment.
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