“A good geology student will tell you that such a texture indicates the rock formed when crystals grew and settled in a slowly cooling magma – for example a thick lava flow, lava lake, or magma chamber,” said Farley. The PIXL data showed the rock, nicknamed “Brac,” to be composed of an unusual abundance of large olivine crystals engulfed in pyroxene crystals. 12, PIXL analyzed a South Séítah rock the science team had chosen to take a core sample from using the rover’s drill. Short for Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry, PIXL uses X-ray fluorescence to map the elemental composition of rocks. The drill at the end of Perseverance’s robotic arm can abrade, or grind, rock surfaces to allow other instruments, such as PIXL, to study them. “But then our PIXL instrument got a good look at the abraded patch of a rock from the area nicknamed ‘South Séítah,’ and it all became clear: The crystals within the rock provided the smoking gun.” “I was beginning to despair we would never find the answer,” said Perseverance Project Scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena. Were they sedimentary – the compressed accumulation of mineral particles possibly carried to the location by an ancient river system? Or where they igneous, possibly born in lava flows rising to the surface from a now long-extinct Martian volcano? These and other findings were presented today during a news briefing at the American Geophysical Union fall science meeting in New Orleans.Įven before Perseverance touched down on Mars, the mission’s science team had wondered about the origin of the rocks in the area. The team has also concluded that rocks in the crater have interacted with water multiple times over the eons and that some contain organic molecules. The discovery has implications for understanding and accurately dating critical events in the history of Jezero Crater – as well as the rest of the planet. Scientists with NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover mission have discovered that the bedrock their six-wheeled explorer has been driving on since landing in February likely formed from red-hot magma. The findings by rover scientists highlight the diversity of samples geologists and future scientists associated with the agency’s Mars Sample Return program will have to study. The delta formed billions of years ago from sediment an ancient river carried to the mouth of a lake that once existed in the crater. Explore Mars' Jezero Crater with NASA's Perseverance Rover :Taken by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z instrument, this video – narrated by Perseverance Project Scientist Ken Farley – features an enhanced-color composite image that pans across Jezero Crater’s delta on Mars.
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