Mars rover's first rock samples reveal lengthy water exposure
The first two rock samples examined by NASA's Mars rover Perseverance give scientists a firm belief that water inundated Jezero Crater for a sustained period of time, the agency announced Friday. "We determined salt granules in the rock indicate it was exposed to water," Julia Goreva, a NASA scientist for the rover program, said in a news conference from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
The rocks, drilled Monday and Wednesday, came from an igneous or volcanic rock. The agency previously knew that water once filled the crater, but not for how long. The salt deposits mean NASA can now rule out a sudden "flash in the pan" water event, the agency said in a news release. "It looks like our first rocks reveal a potentially habitable sustained environment," said Ken Farley, project scientist for the mission, said in the release. "It's a big deal that the water was there a long time."
The samples now are stored and sealed inside the rover as part of a multinational effort to bring Mars rocks back to Earth by 2031, said Kate Stack Morgan, Perseverance deputy project scientist.
The samples may be dropped on the Martian surface for a future rover to retrieve and launch into space, where another spacecraft would catch them and return them to Earth. Ultimately, the goal is to use advanced equipment on Earth to analyze the rocks for signs of ancient life on Mars.
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/09/10/Mars-Perseverance-rover-rock-sample/7121631286076/
An illustration depicts the Mars rover Perseverance extending instruments to drill a rock sample on the surface of the planet.
Image courtesy of NASA
The Mars rover Perseverance drilled the first two successful samples from a Mars rock NASA calls Rochette on Monday and Wednesday.
Photo courtesy of NASA
= new reply since forum marked as read
... a big discovery!
