{"id":24133,"date":"2023-12-21T18:25:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T10:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/1000-sols-into-their-mission-perseverance-and-ingenuity-continue-to-investigate-jezero-crater\/"},"modified":"2023-12-21T18:25:18","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T10:25:18","slug":"1000-sols-into-their-mission-perseverance-and-ingenuity-continue-to-investigate-jezero-crater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/1000-sols-into-their-mission-perseverance-and-ingenuity-continue-to-investigate-jezero-crater\/","title":{"rendered":"1,000 sols into their mission, Perseverance and Ingenuity continue to investigate Jezero Crater"},"content":{"rendered":"

After celebrating their 1,000th sol, or Martian day, on Mars, NASA\u2019s Perseverance <\/em>rover and Ingenuity<\/em> helicopter are continuing to explore Jezero Crater on the Red Planet. Recently, the robotic pair completed their extensive investigation of the ancient river delta within Jezero, which contains evidence of flowing water that may have once filled Jezero thousands of years ago.<\/p>\n

As part of its extensive investigation into the river delta, Perseverance<\/em> routinely collects samples of the Martian surface, rocks, and other intriguing surface features. To date, the rover has collected a total of 23 surface samples as part of the joint NASA\/European Space Agency Mars Sample Return mission. However, scientists get a preliminary look at the samples when Perseverance<\/em> collects them, and they\u2019ve already been able to decipher pieces of Mars\u2019 geologic history from the samples.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

For example, one of the most recent samples Perseverance<\/em> collected, named \u201cLefroy Bay,\u201d contained high amounts of fine-grained silica, which is known to help preserve ancient fossils on Earth. Within sample \u201cOtis Peak,\u201d scientists identified large quantities of phosphate \u2014 a compound that is often closely associated with life. Both of the samples also contained carbonate, which can preserve local environmental conditions from when the samples were formed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe picked Jezero Crater as a landing site because orbital imagery showed a delta \u2014 clear evidence that a large lake once filled the crater. A lake is a potentially habitable environment, and delta rocks are a great environment for entombing signs of ancient life as fossils in the geologic record. After thorough exploration, we\u2019ve pieced together the crater\u2019s geologic history, charting its lake and river phase from beginning to end,\u201d said project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech.<\/p>\n

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Image of Jezero Crater\u2019s river delta, taken by ESA\u2019s Mars Express orbiter. (Credit: ESA\/DLR\/FU-Berlin)<\/p>\n

Though scientists had ideas and theories about what Jezero was like, they ultimately didn\u2019t know until Perseverance<\/em> landed there in February 2021. Following landing, the rover discovered that the crater floor of Jezero is made of igneous rock, meaning its surface was created from magma under the surface or volcanic activity on the surface. The discovery of igneous rock in Jezero\u2019s surface allowed scientists to confirm that the crater was formed from an asteroid impact nearly four billion years ago.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

See Also<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • Perseverance Updates<\/li>\n
  • Mars Missions Section<\/li>\n
  • Space Science Coverage<\/li>\n
  • Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Subsequent discoveries of sandstone and mudstone by Perseverance<\/em> allowed scientists to determine when the first rivers began flowing within Jezero a few hundred million years after the asteroid impact. Above these initial sand and mudstones are salt-rich mudstones, which hint at the presence of a shallow lake that was experiencing evaporation. When the lake filled up, fast-flowing waters carried boulders from outside Jezero into the lake, where they were ultimately distributed atop the river delta and throughout the entire crater. Further discoveries by Perseverance<\/em> and Ingenuity<\/em> have led planetary scientists to estimate Jezero\u2019s lake to have once been as wide as 35 kilometers and as deep as 30 meters.<\/p>\n

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    \u201cWe were able to see a broad outline of these chapters in Jezero\u2019s history in orbital images, but it required getting up close with Perseverance<\/em> to really understand the timeline in detail,\u201d said mission manager Libby Ives, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.<\/p>\n

    As mentioned, the samples collected by Perseverance<\/em> are planned to be returned to Earth via the Mars Sample Return mission, meaning that \u2014 in addition to Jezero\u2019s history as a lake \u2014 scientists had to factor which locations would provide the best samples when determining Mars 2020\u2019s landing location. Returning the samples to Earth will allow scientists to investigate the Martian surface and surface features in extreme detail, as Perseverance<\/em> only has a handful of instruments that can analyze the samples.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n