The Perseverance rover landed in Mars’ Jezero Crater largely due to in depth proof that the crater as soon as hosted a lake, that means the presence of liquid water which may as soon as have hosted Martian life. And the touchdown was successful, putting the rover on the fringe of a construction that seemed to be a river delta the place the close by highlands drained into the crater.
However a abstract of the primary yr of knowledge from the rover, printed in three totally different papers being launched right this moment, means that Perseverance has but to stumble throughout any proof of a watery paradise. As an alternative, all indications are that water publicity within the areas it explored was restricted, and the waters have been more likely to be close to freezing. Whereas this does not rule out that it’s going to discover lake deposits later, the atmosphere won’t have been as welcoming for all times as “a lake in a crater” may need advised.
Placing all of it collectively
Perseverance will be thought of a platform for a big suite of devices that present an image of what the rover is taking a look at. Even its “eyes,” a pair of cameras on its mast, can create stereo pictures with 3D data, and supply data on what wavelengths are current within the pictures. It additionally has devices that may be held as much as rocks to find out their content material and construction; sample-handling {hardware} can carry out a chemical evaluation of supplies taken from rocks.
Whereas the brand new data is split into separate papers primarily based on the devices the info got here from, the important thing factor is that each one three paint a constant image and construct off one another.
For instance, the spectroscopy instruments present particulars of a pattern’s chemical composition however they do not inform us how these chemical compounds are distributed in a rock. In distinction, there are X-ray evaluation instruments that supply inexact chemical data, however they inform us how the chemical compounds it detects are positioned in comparison with the rock’s seen options. And the cameras on the rover’s masks may help us establish how extensively distributed related rocks are.
Collectively, these instruments inform us that Perseverance sampled rocks from two totally different deposits thus far. The primary contains the crater ground the place it landed, which is wealthy in iron- and magnesium-based minerals. Above that may be a separate formation that seems to be volcanic rock, though we won’t rule out that it was fashioned by rock liquified following an influence.
Each deposits have been clearly formed by processes we all know are taking place on Mars. Most of the rocks have been formed by the wind and should have skilled some chemical alterations because of the environment or radiation publicity. In locations shadowed from the wind, unfastened regolith has constructed up, a lot of it with Mars’ attribute purple tint. There’s additionally a wide range of particles from impacts, together with some smaller ones throughout the Jezero crater.
However the huge query is whether or not the supplies present indications that water was current. The reply there’s a little bit of a “sure, however…”
