{"id":11285,"date":"2022-09-16T23:35:03","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T15:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/perseverance-mars-rover-hitting-paydirt-in-search-for-clues-about-possible-ancient-life\/"},"modified":"2022-09-16T23:35:03","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T15:35:03","slug":"perseverance-mars-rover-hitting-paydirt-in-search-for-clues-about-possible-ancient-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/perseverance-mars-rover-hitting-paydirt-in-search-for-clues-about-possible-ancient-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Perseverance Mars rover hitting paydirt in search for clues about possible ancient life"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

\"\"
NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called \u201cSkinner Ridge\u201d in Mars\u2019 Jezero Crater. Composed of multiple images, this mosaic shows layered sedimentary rocks in the face of a cliff in the delta, as well as one of the locations where the rover abraded a circular patch to analyze a rocket\u2019s composition. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU\/MSSS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA\u2019s Perseverance Mars rover has collected and stored samples of rocks at the base of an ancient river delta fanning out from the rim of Jezero Crater made up of minerals and organic compounds that, on Earth, would likely preserve traces of past microbial life, researchers said Thursday.<\/p>\n

But to find out if any such \u201cpotential biosignatures\u201d include actual traces of past life on Mars, scientists will have to wait for a NASA-European Space Agency mission at the end of the decade to collect them and bring them back to Earth for detailed laboratory analysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe samples that we\u2019ve collected as we presented here today \u2026 have ingredients for life in terms of the environmental setting,\u201d said David Shuster, a Perseverance return sample scientist at the University of California.<\/p>\n

The material was transported into Jezero Crater by water and deposited into a 25-mile-wide lake with fine particles that settled out amid phases of evaporation, factors that combine to \u201chave high potential for biosignature preservation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf these conditions existed, I think, pretty much anywhere on Earth at any point in time over the last \u2026 three and a half billion years, I think it\u2019s safe to say, or at least assume, that biology would have done its thing and left its mark in these rocks for us to observe.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so that\u2019s really why we\u2019re so excited to be able to address these questions upon returning these samples to laboratories here on Earth,\u201d Shuster said. \u201cWe have all of the right ingredients here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The $2.4 billion Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, and has spent the past 18 months working its way toward the base of a fan-like delta cutting through the rim where water once rushed in to fill a broad, now-vanished pool the size of Lake Tahoe.<\/p>\n

Perseverance is equipped with a suite of sophisticated instruments designed to study the ancient lakebed deposits, on the lookout for traces of past microbial life that might have filtered down to be preserved in what are now layers of sedimentary rock.<\/p>\n

Along with giving scientists an opportunity to remotely survey the rocks and sandy soil of Jezero, Perseverance also is equipped with a complex collection and caching mechanism that can store more than 40 samples of soil and rocky cores, sealing them in small environmentally closed tubes to await transport back to Earth.<\/p>\n

If all goes well, a joint sample return mission being developed by NASA and the European Space Agency will land another spacecraft near Perseverance around 2030 and either collect the stored samples from the rover or use two small helicopters to pick up sample tubes Perseverance will have dropped onto the surface.<\/p>\n

The samples will be loaded onto a small rocket and blasted into Mars orbit where they will be captured by another spacecraft and returned to Earth for analysis to determine if any of the \u201cpotential biosignatures\u201d are actual traces of past microbial life.<\/p>\n

\u201cMars sample return stands maybe the best chance ever of answering a very profound question: are we alone in the universe?\u201d said Sunanda Sharma, a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who works with one of the rover\u2019s instruments.<\/p>\n