The rocks he has analyzed for sampling help the team better understand a past marked by volcanic activity and water.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover successfully collected its first pair of rock samples, and scientists are already gaining new insights into the region. After picking up their first sample, called “Montdenier,” on Sept. 6, the team picked up a second, “Montagnac,” from the same rock on Sept. 8.
The analysis of the rocks from which the samples of Montdenier and Montagnac were taken and of the previous sampling attempt of the rover can help the scientific team to reconcile the timeline of the past of the zone, marked by the volcanic activity and periods of persistent water.
“Our first rocks appear to reveal a potentially habitable sustainable environment,” said Ken Farley of Caltech, a mission project scientist led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It’s a great thing that the water has been there a long time.”
The rock that provided the first basic samples of the mission has a basaltic composition and may be the product of lava flows. The presence of crystalline minerals in volcanic rocks is especially useful in radiometric dating. The volcanic origin of the rock could help scientists pinpoint the date it formed. Each sample can be used as part of a larger puzzle chronological; place them in the correct order and the scientists have a chronology of the most important events in the history of the crater. Some of these events include the formation of the Jezero crater, the appearance and disappearance of Lake Jezero, and changes in the planet’s climate in the ancient past.
In addition, salts have been spied inside these rocks. These salts may have formed when groundwater crossed and altered the original minerals in the rock, or more likely when the liquid water evaporated, leaving the salts. The salt minerals of these first two rock cores may also have trapped tiny bubbles of ancient Martian water. If present, they could serve as microscopic time capsules, providing clues about the ancient climate and habitability of Mars. Salt minerals are also well known on Earth for their ability to preserve signs of ancient life.
The Perseverance scientific team already knew that a lake filled the crater; for how long it has been more uncertain. Scientists could not rule out the possibility that Lake Jezero was a “flash in the pan”: the floodwaters could have quickly filled the impact crater and dried up in 50 years, for example.
But the level of alteration that scientists see in the rock that provided the basic samples, as well as in the rock that the team aimed at in its first attempt at acquiring samples, suggests that groundwater was present for a long time.
These groundwater could have been related to the lake in Jezero, or it could have traveled through the rocks long after the lake had dried up. Although scientists still cannot say whether any of the water that altered these rocks was present for tens of thousands or millions of years, they are more certain that it was there long enough to make the area more welcoming. to microscopic life in the past.
“These samples are of great value for future laboratory analysis on Earth,” said Mitch Schulte of NASA headquarters, a mission program scientist. “One day, we will be able to find out the sequence and time of the environmental conditions that the minerals of this rock represent. This will help answer the general question of science about the history and stability of liquid water on Mars. “
Next stop, ‘South Séítah’
Perseverance is currently searching the crater floor for samples that can be brought to Earth to answer deep questions about the history of Mars. The promising samples are sealed in titanium tubes that the rover carries to its chassis, where they will be stored until Perseverance drops them to retrieve them on a future mission. Perseverance will likely create several “deposits” later in the mission, where he will leave samples for a future mission to Earth. Having one or more deposits increases the likelihood that especially valuable samples will be accessible for recovery on Earth.
Perseverance’s next likely sample site is just 200 meters away in “South Séítah,” a series of mountain ranges covered in sand dunes, boulders, and rock formations that Farley compares to “broken dinner plates”.
The rover’s recent drilling sample represents what is probably one of the youngest layers of rock to be found on the ground of Jezero Crater. South Séitah, on the other hand, is probably older and will provide the scientific team with a better chronology for understanding the events that shaped the crater’s soil, including its lake.
In early October, all missions to Mars will be stopped from commanding their spacecraft for several weeks, a protective measure during a period called Mars’ solar conjunction. Perseverance is unlikely to pierce south of Séitah until some time after this period.
Learn more about perseverance
A key goal for Perseverance’s mission to Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s past geology and climate, pave the way for human exploration of the red planet, and be the first mission to collect and hide Martian rock and regolith: broken rock and dust.
Subsequent NASA missions, in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and take them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s approach to exploring the Moon to Mars, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare you for human exploration of the red planet.
JPL, which is managed by NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and managed the operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more information on perseverance:
nasa.gov/perseverance and mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
News media contacts
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501
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Andrew Good
Reaction Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
818-393-2433
[email protected]