NASA’s Persevere Mars rover has been on the red planet for some time as humanity tries to solve the mysteries of our neighboring planet and whether it ever harbored life. The rover, earlier this year, landed in the Jezero crater and continued its mission. However, today’s discovery may be a breakthrough in this direction, having witnessed something “no one has ever seen”.
Since October 25, the probe has investigated several rocky outcrops located in the southern region of Sima on Mars and managed to drill holes in the Martian surface to reveal something that has so far escaped the human eye, but nothing more.
NASA has taken to Twitter to share developments. “Looking inside to see something no one has seen before. I scratched a small patch of this rock to remove the surface layer and looked under it,” reads the post from the official NASA Perseverance handle. He added that he was already focused on the next target for the Martian sample. Beneath the top layer are what appear to be granular minerals and sediments.
The explorer is able to drill holes with the help of a scraper attached to its robotic arm, which helps it scrape off layers of rock. Images of the scratched surface are then returned to Earth, fueling speculation about whether life exists on Mars. If that’s the case, we’re not alone in the universe anymore (as far as we know).
Let’s talk about the photos the rover shared, all of which were captured by the wide-angle operating topographic sensor and eEngineering camera (WATSON). In the first image, the rover is scraping the rocky surface of Mars with its tools. In the second case, there is circular erosion on the surface of the rock and white dust is scattered around it. The third image shows the rover getting bigger and taking a closer look at the erosion, where the dust looks like sand. The final image shows details of the surface beneath the rock, which looks very different in texture from the outer surface of the rock.
NASA has said previously that layered rocks often form in water, and can hold clues about what their environment was like. “Let’s see if this will be another great place for #SamplingMars.”
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