An ancient river is helping NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover do its work

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover sealed the tube containing its twentieth rock core pattern on June 23 (the 832nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission), and the mission’s science group is happy about its potential. That is as a result of this pattern was drilled by the rover from an outcrop composed of tiny chunks of different rocks that had been carried from elsewhere by a river within the distant previous and deposited right here, the place they grew to become cemented collectively. Conglomerates like this one (nicknamed “Emerald Lake” by the group) pack plenty of details about locations the rover might by no means go to, with every new rock fragment representing a geologic a narrative to be informed.

“Pebbles and boulders present in a river are messengers from afar,” mentioned Ken Farley, Perseverance challenge scientist from Caltech in Pasadena. “And whereas the water that created the Martian riverbed that Perseverance is presently exploring evaporated billions of years in the past, the story carried by these waters stays recent, saved in conglomerate rock.”

Perseverance is accumulating these samples in order that they are often delivered to Earth by the NASA-ESA (European Area Company) Mars Pattern Return marketing campaign and studied by lab gear that is too massive and complicated to deliver to Mars. Scientists will have the ability to have a look at every pebble and fragment on this core, dubbed “Otis Peak,” to find out particulars equivalent to its age, what the environmental situations had been like within the river when the conglomerate fashioned, and whether or not it accommodates indicators of historic microbial life.

Now in its third science marketing campaign, Perseverance is exploring the highest of a fan-shaped pile of sedimentary rock that stands 130 ft (40 meters) tall. With this pattern sealed and saved in its stomach, the rover is on its approach to a low ridge known as Snowdrift Peak. To get there, it should cross a area of boulders.

As with the rock fragments within the Otis Peak pattern, scientists imagine the boulders doubtless fashioned elsewhere and had been transported to their current location billions of years in the past by an historic river. Boulders are additionally fascinating as a result of their massive floor space permits scientists to visually examine many doubtlessly distinct rocks in a single picture. So the group can be maintaining their choices open, able to cease for something that piques their curiosity.

“Whether or not the boulders seem intriguing sufficient for nearer examination and doable sampling stays to be seen—actually,” mentioned Farley. “We’re taking a web page from the previous. Prospectors in search of gold or diamonds within the outdated days usually appeared in rivers to find out whether or not there was any deposit of curiosity upstream. No must hike up there to see—let the river do the work.”