The drill at the end of Perseverance’s robotic arm can abrade, or grind, rock surfaces to allow other instruments, such as PIXL, to study them. “But then our PIXL instrument got a good look at the abraded patch of a rock from the area nicknamed ‘South Séítah,’ and it all became clear: The crystals within the rock provided the smoking gun.” “I was beginning to despair we would never find the answer,” said Perseverance Project Scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena. Were they sedimentary – the compressed accumulation of mineral particles possibly carried to the location by an ancient river system? Or where they igneous, possibly born in lava flows rising to the surface from a now long-extinct Martian volcano? These and other findings were presented today during a news briefing at the American Geophysical Union fall science meeting in New Orleans.Įven before Perseverance touched down on Mars, the mission’s science team had wondered about the origin of the rocks in the area.

The team has also concluded that rocks in the crater have interacted with water multiple times over the eons and that some contain organic molecules. The discovery has implications for understanding and accurately dating critical events in the history of Jezero Crater – as well as the rest of the planet. Scientists with NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover mission have discovered that the bedrock their six-wheeled explorer has been driving on since landing in February likely formed from red-hot magma.

Mars landing 2021