One of the NASA rover’s main jobs was to collect rock samples for eventual shipment to Earth.
For now, the rover can move on from the Three Forks river delta. The delta was formed several billions years ago, when water once flowed on the Martian surface, and Jezero Crater was filled with Jezero Lake.NASA chose the location for because of its potential for astrobiology. The earliest evidence for life on Earth appears in 3.5-billion-year-old, layers of rocky material congealed by ancient microbes. Stromatolites still form on Earth today, in shallow reef systems in Western Australia.
Since stromatolites form in shallow water flows today, for NASA it followed that Perseverance should interrogate an analogous environment on Mars. Though Mars is a dry, barren place today, the Three Forks delta and its immediate vicinity is aNow that its sample collection is done, the rover will head farther up the delta, past an outcrop called Rocky Top and toward the top of the delta itself.
“We found that from the base of the delta up to the level where Rocky Top is located, the rocks appear to have been deposited in a lake environment,” said Ken Farley, a Perseverance project scientist at Caltech, in a JPL. “As we ascend the delta into a river setting, we expect to move into rocks that are composed of larger grains – from sand to large boulders. Those materials likely originated in rocks outside of Jezero, eroded and then washed into the crater.
Until then, the backup sample tubes will lie on Jezero’s flat surface, while Percy carries its first shipment up the delta.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Completes Mars Sample Depot – Captures Amazing Variety of Martian GeologyTen sample tubes, capturing an amazing variety of Martian geology, have been deposited on Mars’ surface so they could be studied on Earth in the future. Less than six weeks after it began, construction of the first sample depot on another world is complete. Confirmation that NASA’s Perseverance M
Read more »
NASA's Perseverance rover has established a historic Mars sample depotTen sample tubes containing a unique piece of Martian geology have been left by NASA on Mars in anticipation of further investigation here on Earth.
Read more »
NASA's Mars Rover Perseverance Just Dropped Off Its Last SampleAfter almost two years of roaming the surface, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has officially dropped off the tenth and final Martian soil sample.
Read more »
Perseverance Mars rover stashes 10th sample, completing Red Planet depotThe depot will serve as a backup, in case Perseverance can't deliver its onboard samples to a rocket-toting lander.
Read more »
Zach Bryan’s ‘Something in the Orange’ Hits No. 1 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs Chart.zachlanebryan's ‘Something in the Orange’ hits No. 1 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.
Read more »
NASA's Mars rover has just completed a historic task | Digital TrendsNASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has finished what the space agency is calling “humanity’s first sample depot on another planet.”
Read more »