The Perseverance rover found previously unseen rocks while conducting a scientific program to explore the crater-covered terrain on Mars. They may be the oldest ever found on the red planet.
New findings from the Perseverance rover
Perseverance has doubled back several times in the past few weeks. Why such an unconventional route? The team’s scientists were excited about the discovery of new rock types that may be the oldest rocks ever found on Mars, and they are eager to collect samples.
The Perseverance team has begun a crater exploration program in search of ancient uplifted rocks to better understand the geological processes occurring early in Mars’ history, as well as to search for ancient habitable environments.
The recent discoveries have not disappointed: until now, in this part of the rim, every delamination the rover has looked at with scientific instruments on its robotic arm has turned out to be something new. After exploring the core of Silver Mountain, rich in the mineral pyroxene, Perseverance approached a neighboring rock with evidence of the mineral serpentine, called “Serpentine Lake.”
The rover then used its abrasive tool to clean the rock of dust and coatings for a detailed scientific study, and the team was struck by the intriguing texture of the rock, reminiscent of a cookie-and-cream dessert, as well as the very large amount of minerals, such as serpentine that form in the presence of water.
Rock sampling
With that study completed, the operations team decided to send Perseverance back on its way to the site of the first abrasion in that part of the rim, called Cat Arm Reservoir, to take a sample.
Preliminary analysis results showed a rock texture with coarse pyroxene and feldspar crystals, indicating a volcanic origin. However, the test tube was empty. What happened? Perseverance has faced this problem before: recall our first attempt at core sampling.
It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes the rocks that Perseverance tries to sample are so weak that they actually disintegrate into powder after the core is taken rather than remain in the test tube. The rover went to a neighboring site and tried again, but when the second attempt failed to take any samples, the team decided to move on.
Perseverance’s next route
Perseverance will return to the abrasion patch at Serpentine Lake this week to core this amazing rock showing intense alteration by water. The team hopes it will be strong enough to get a core and, if successful, Perseverance will be able to perform more scans at the abrasion site.
After that, the plan is to descend to a place called Broom Point, home to a striking sequence of layered rocks, where more surprises and fascinating scientific discoveries await us.
According to phys.org
