NASA’s Persistent Mars Rover Discovers Interesting Organic Material in Rocks

This story is part of Welcome to Marsour series exploring the red planet.

In just a year and a half on the surface of Mars, NASA’s rover has completely rocked its mission. The agency held a briefing Thursday to discuss the highlights of the scientific mission to date, and it was a celebration of rock samples and the discovery of organic matter.

Organic Molecules in Wildcat Ridge

A rock called Wildcat Ridge, located in an ancient river delta in Jezero Crater, was one of the stars of the show. Percy succeeded in collecting two clay rock samples. Wildcat Ridge is particularly exciting because the organic molecules (called aromatics) in it are a potential biosignature, which NASA describes as a substance or structure that could be evidence of past life but may also have been produced without life.

The rover team emphasized that finding the organic matter does not mean that evidence of ancient life has been found. Organic molecules have been observed on Mars before by Rover Curiosity in Gale Crater As well as with perseverance that found molecules containing carbon Earlier in the mission.

The rover’s Sherlock instrument examined the rock. (Sherloc stands for scanning of habitable environments with Raman & Luminescence for organics and chemicals.) “In its analysis of Wildcat Ridge, the Sherloc instrument recorded the mission’s most abundant organic discovery to date,” NASA said.

Scientists see familiar signs in Wildcat Ridge analysis. “In the distant past, the sand, mud, and salts that now make up the Wildcat Ridge specimen were deposited under conditions where life would have thrived,” Perseverance Project scientist Ken Farley said in the current situation. “The fact that organic matter is found in such sedimentary rocks – known to preserve fossils of ancient life here on Earth – is important.”

Perseverance is not equipped to find definitive evidence of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. “The truth is that the burden of proof to establish life on another planet is very high,” Farley said during the press conference. For this, we need to examine Martian rocks up close and personal in Earth laboratories.

drop sample

Percy currently has 12 rock samples on board, including a cut of the Wildcat Ridge and samples of another delta sedimentary rock called Skinner Ridge. I also collected samples of igneous rocks earlier in the mission that indicate the impact of volcanic action long ago in the crater.

NASA is so pleased with the variety of samples collected that they’re looking to drop some filled tubes on the surface soon in preparation for the future. Mars sample return Campaign (MSR). MSR is an ambitious plan to send a lander to Mars, capture Percy’s samples, launch them to the surface and return them to Earth for closer study. The task is under development. If all goes as planned, these rocks could be here by 2033.

The complexity and importance of the MSR means that NASA and its partners are working on ways to ensure that samples can be collected. There is hope that the Perseverance will still be operating in good shape by the time the MSR lander arrives, and will be able to meet it and deliver samples in person. Leaving some samples on the ground early in the mission in a bunker location in the crater will give MSR another chance to get the precious rocks aboard.

Percy was collecting the double samples. For example, he can keep one Wildcat Ridge tube aboard and drop the other on the ground. “We’re weeks away from releasing fantastic samples and just years from bringing them back to Earth so scientists can study them in great detail is truly extraordinary,” said Laurie Lischen, NASA Administrator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We will learn a lot.”

What’s next for Percy?

As exciting as the Delta was, the Rover team is looking forward to future adventures beyond. Perseverance can roam the crater rim, as the team looks to the many potential paths to climb. mate ingenuity helicopter He is in good health and is expected to fly through the air again.

NASA chose Jezero Crater for exploration because of its fascinating history in the waters and how the rocks there could have preserved evidence of ancient life, if it existed during habitable times on Mars. Sherlock scientist Sunanda Sharma likened the mission to searching for a treasure trove of organic life on another planet, saying samples containing aromatic substances are evidence. The mystery of Mars is just beginning to emerge.