“In the distant past, the sand, mud, and salts that now make up the Wildcat Ridge sample were deposited under conditions where life could potentially have thrived,” said Perseverance project scientist Prof Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena, California. © NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSSĪ preliminary analysis of the Wildcat Ridge samples was carried out by an instrument onboard Perseverance called Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals, or SHERLOC.Īlthough evidence of organic matter has been found on Mars before, by both Perseverance and its predecessor Curiosity, SHERLOC’s analysis indicates that the Wildcat Ridge samples contain the largest number of organic compounds of any collected to date. Composed of multiple images from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, this mosaic shows a rocky outcrop called “Wildcat Ridge,” where the rover extracted two rock cores. “We picked the Jezero Crater for Perseverance to explore because we thought it had the best chance of providing scientifically excellent samples – and now we know we sent the rover to the right location,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington. It is 45km wide and home to an ancient fan-shaped delta that formed about 3.5 billion years ago when rivers spilled over the crater walls and created a lake. The Jezero Crater lies just north of the Martian equator. Perseverance has been trundling around an area known as the Jezero Crater since September 2021 and has so far collected 12 samples of rock.Īll of the samples it collects during its sojourn on the Red Planet are scheduled to be brought back to Earth for analysis in 2033 as part of the Mars Sample Return mission. The development of the MAV will play a crucial role in realising that value.NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has found organic material deposited under conditions where life could have thrivedĪs part of its continuing exploration of an ancient Martian riverbed, NASA’s Perseverance rover has collected some of the most promising samples yet in its ongoing search for signs of life on the Red Planet.Īmong them are several mudstone samples collected from a one-metre-wide rock named Wildcat Ridge that are packed with organic compounds – chemicals that are essential for life. "These samples have high value for future laboratory analysis back on Earth," NASA's Mitch Schulte said at the time. NASA previously said its scientists couldn't dismiss the possibility that Jezero's lake was a "flash in the pan" filled with floodwaters that dried up in the space of 50 years.īut the signs from the rock samples suggest groundwater was present for much longer than that.Īlthough the scientists can't be certain whether the water that altered these rocks was present for tens of thousands of years or for millions of years, they are growing increasingly certain it was there long enough to welcome microscopic life. It is certain that a lake once filled the crater, but for how long is unknown. The space agency selected the Jezero crater on Mars for this mission specifically because it showed signs of being an ancient river delta, and the aim was to drill deep down into the sediment where this river once flowed to check for remnants of alien life.
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