- NASA’s Perseverance rover reached rock outcrops known as Vivid Angel, in an historic river channel referred to as Neretva Vallis.
- The outcrops could also be both historic rock uncovered by river erosion or sediments that crammed the channel.
- Vivid Angel is the most recent science goal in Neretva Vallis. The rover additionally investigated an uncommon rock known as Atoko Level.
Perseverance rover explores an historic riverbed
NASA’s Perseverance rover has been busy investigating an historic river channel on Mars known as Neretva Vallis. It lies alongside the inside wall of Jezero crater. The channel, with sand dunes, boulders and rocky outcrops, is chock filled with geologically thrilling options. On June 13, 2024, NASA said the rover reached its newest goal, Bright Angel. The sunshine-toned rocky outcrops in Vivid Angel are distinct among the many surrounding darker rocks and sand dunes. The mission group stated the outcrops are probably both rock uncovered by previous river erosion or sediments that after crammed the channel.
Alongside the best way, the rover additionally noticed an intriguing white speckled boulder known as Atoko Point. It incorporates pyroxene and feldspar minerals and should have shaped in historic scorching magma.
Perseverance rover reaches Vivid Angel
With the intention to attain Vivid Angel, Perseverance needed to cross the ground of the river channel. Vivid Angel seems as a lighter patch contained in the channel. The rover reached Vivid Angel on June 9, after meandering round some sand dunes and avoiding bigger boulders.
This route was shorter than the one the mission group was initially going to take. Total, it reduce the drive time down by a number of weeks.
Vivid Angel is simply the most recent cease within the Perseverance rover’s 4th science marketing campaign. Perseverance is searching for carbonate and olivine deposits inside the Margin Unit, which Vivid Angel is a part of.
A route change on my method to Vivid Angel has led me by an unexpectedly numerous geological playground, Neretva Vallis! This historic river channel – which carried a lot of the water that flowed into Jezero Crater billions of years in the past – is stuffed with intriguing boulders. pic.twitter.com/4faWzFZJpt
— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 13, 2024
Having scooted throughout Neretva Vallis, @NASAPersevere is now learning an space of light-toned rocks known as “Vivid Angel”. This is a close-up of the rocks… Geologists, be at liberty to inform us what you suppose we’re seeing right here… Picture Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/S Atkinson pic.twitter.com/gIRTl8m8de
— Stuart Atkinson (@mars_stu) June 23, 2024
Navigating tough terrain
Perseverance first drove alongside a ridge alongside the channel. It wasn’t all the time a simple journey, nonetheless. Evan Graser, Perseverance’s deputy strategic route planner lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said:
We began paralleling the channel in late January and have been making fairly good progress, however then the boulders grew to become larger and extra quite a few. What had been drives averaging over 100 meters per Martian day went right down to solely tens of meters. It was irritating.
Perseverance has technological instruments to assist it navigate tough terrain. It could use its cameras to plan drives of as much as 100 ft (30 meters) at a time. However to go farther, it makes use of its auto-navigation system known as AutoNav. On this case, nonetheless, the boulders started to turn out to be extra quite a few than anticipated. AutoNav detected them however would make the rover cease as a precaution. That slowed down the rover’s journey’s significantly.
Crossing the river channel
Consequently, the mission group determined to chop throughout the river channel as an alternative. They needed to navigate a 1,300-foot (400-meter) dune subject, however that was simpler than avoiding the boulders. Graser stated:
We had been eyeing the river channel simply to the north as we went, hoping to discover a part the place the dunes have been small and much sufficient aside for a rover to go between, as a result of dunes have been identified to eat Mars rovers. Perseverance additionally wanted an entrance ramp we might safely journey down. When the imagery confirmed each, we made a beeline for it.
Atoko Level: Perseverance rover finds uncommon white boulder
Some of the fascinating discoveries that Perseverance made whereas journeying to Vivid Angel was an fascinating white boulder that stood out from all of the others round it. It was on a small hill known as Mount Washburn, which is roofed in rocks and boulders. The mission group nicknamed it Atoko Point. The sunshine-colored speckled rock regarded distinctly totally different from the opposite reddish rocks. What was it? Brad Garczynski at Western Washington College in Bellingham stated:
The range of textures and compositions at Mount Washburn was an thrilling discovery for the group, as these rocks characterize a seize bag of geologic items introduced down from the crater rim and probably past. However amongst all these totally different rocks, there was one that actually caught our consideration.
Historical subsurface magma?
Atoko Level is eighteen inches (45 cm) huge and 14 inches (35 cm) tall. It type of regarded like granite, however what was it truly made from? Evaluation by Perseverance confirmed it’s composed of the minerals pyroxene and feldspar. It’s additionally distinctive concerning its measurement, form and association of the mineral grains and crystals in it, and perhaps even its chemical composition. It’s the primary of its variety the rover has seen on Mars.
It could have shaped in a subsurface physique of scorching magma in Jezero crater. Or it might have shaped elsewhere, after which one of many historic rivers of the area transported it to its present location.
After ending at Mount Washburn, Perseverance traveled 433 ft (132 m) to Tuff Cliff. After that, it made the ultimate leg of the journey to Vivid Angel, protecting 1,985 ft (605 m).
Backside line: NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars has reached an space of flat light-toned rocky outcrops known as Vivid Angel. The intriguing rocks are in an historic river channel.
Read more: Perseverance rover reveals history of ancient habitable lake
Read more: 10 months of Perseverance: New Mars discoveries
