NASA’s rover on Mars has made a “strange” and fascinating find on the red planet: a small green rock mounted on craters.
Wednesday’s discovery has caused the instruments of Perseverance to be able to examine it more closely, and scientists are “commercializing many hypotheses.” according to the rover’s Twitter page.
“While the helicopter is preparing,” the account said, referring to an independent mission from the Ingenuity helicopter, “I can’t help but check the nearby rocks.
“This guy has my scientific team negotiating a lot of hypotheses,” he continued.
“It’s about 6 centimeters long. If you look closely, you may notice the row of laser marks in which I launched it for more information.
The rover’s laser is part of the SuperCam instrument, one of seven scientific instruments aboard the robot, according to Space.com.
The information gathered by the laser could help scientists find out if the small Martian green rock formed in its place or was transported to the Jezero crater, an ancient bed of the lake, by the movement of water, by a meteor or by some other type of impact event “.
“Is there anything worn from the local parent rock? Is it a piece of Mars that went into the area from a far-reaching event? Is it a meteorite? Or something else? ”, As explained by the rover’s Twitter account.
Scientists hope Perseverance can find a suitable launch site for its mini helicopter by the end of the month to explore more of the red planet.
The $ 2.7 billion Mars 2020 mission began in February and is expected to last several years, ultimately preparing NASA for human exploration of Earth’s neighboring planet.