NASA rover discovered the rock crystal this week while drilling for rock thought to have formed from extremely hot magma in the Jezero crater.
“Our PIXL instrument took a good look at the chipped portion of rock from the area dubbed ‘Southern Séítah,’ and everything became clear to see the crystals within the rock,” said Persistence Project Scientist Ken Farley was quoted as saying. News Australia, Saturday (18/12/2021).
READ: Asteroid containing Rp68.2 trillion worth of treasure approaches Earth
The core sample data was then sent to scientists by explorers. Data shows the rock, dubbed ‘ Brac ‘ consists of an unusual abundance of large olivine crystals within pyroxene crystals.
Later geologists told that the rock formed when crystals grew and settled in slowly cooling magma. “The rock was then changed by the water several times,” he said.
This discovery, continued Faley, is very valuable and allows scientists to predict events at Jezero. Better understand the period in which water was on its surface and reveal the early history of the planet.
READ ALSO: Battered by Electric Cars, VW Maintains Paraffin Fuel Diesel Engine
The team is now investigating whether the olivine-bearing rocks were formed by cooling lava lakes or from subsurface lava chambers that were later exposed by erosion. “This was completely unexpected, and we were struggling to understand what it meant,” Farley said.
Perseverance has also sampled new organic compounds with the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument. However NASA have stated that the discovery of organic matter does not necessarily mean that life has existed in the area.
Perseverance’s primary mission on Mars is astrobiology, which includes searching for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover, which landed on the red planet in 2020, seeks to better characterize the planet’s geology and climate of Mars for human exploration.
(es)
– .
