The origin of the stone is a mystery.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON – A lot is happening on the Planet Mars now. The American Space Agency (NASA) currently has a Perseverance rove ready to record some of the events with the Ingenuity helicopter’s first flight.
Reporting from SlashGear, Sunday (4/4), Ingenuity Helicopter is one of the interesting experiments conducted by NASA on the surface of Mars that could produce the first controlled flight on another planet. While Ingenuity is preparing for its test flight, the Perseverance operator spotted an interesting rock nearby and has started an investigation.
NASA saw a green rock on the surface of the Red Planet. Perseverance aims a laser at the rock.
The origin of the stone is a mystery. Scientists wondered if the strange rock was something weathered from local bedrock, a chunk of Mars from a distant impact or perhaps a meteorite.
Mission scientists said the rock was about six inches long and that protruding from its surface was a row of laser markers where Perseverance investigated the rock’s composition. The laser used is part of the SuperCam instrument.
The hope is that over time, the data studied using lasers can help scientists determine whether the rock was formed where it was or ended up there by some other process.
The researchers believe that if the rock had not formed at its current location, it may have carried water into the crater in the past, or it could be that a meteorite chunk occurred.
The Perseverance Rover explores the Jezero crater in search of signs of ancient life. The area in the past was the location of deep lakes and river deltas. The laser the rover uses to investigate the rock creates a cloud of evaporating material that can be analyzed by a camera and spectrometer on top of the rover.
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