By Christopher Lessler
On Jan. 26, the journal Science Advances published a study confirming that the Jezero Crater on Mars once contained water and indicating increased confidence that the region could have been habitable for life. Teams from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Oslo led the research. They used data from NASA’s Perseverance rover, particularly its ground-penetrating RIMFAX radar instrument. This made scans that generated cross-sections of sediment up to 65 feet below the surface.
Using orbital images, NASA had already suspected that water once flowed into the Jezero Crater, which is why they chose that area as the landing site for the Perseverance rover. The rover launched on July 30, 2020, and landed on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. The launch was difficult to finalize because of the pandemic, and the Mars 2020 team was operating on a tight schedule because launches to Mars are only possible for a few weeks every 26 months.
Perseverance features six wheels, a robotic arm, a drill, a nuclear generator, two microphones, and 23 cameras. The rover weighs less than a compact car and is very similar to NASA’s 2011 Curiosity Mars rover, which NASA said helped them minimize costs and risks.
According to the recent study, Jezero Crater has been filled with water and then drained at least twice in its history. Sometime over 3.5 billion years ago, rivers began flowing into the crater and created a lake. This is visible from the fact that clay minerals from the surrounding areas found their way into the crater, having been carried by rivers. During one of its wet phases, it is possible that the Jezero Crater could have hosted microbial life, NASA hypothesized. Perseverance’s data suggest that Mars was habitable to at least microbial life at some point. However, no concrete evidence has yet been found indicating Martian life actually ever existed.
Well before the release of this study, the rover had already discovered igneous rocks, suggesting that the crater was once a lava lake before becoming a water lake. A potential long-term goal is to take samples of Mars rocks back to Earth to study with instruments not available on Perseverance, Mars 2020 Project Scientist Ken Farley told Space.com, but Perseverance itself will never be able to return to Earth.
Whether or not scientists can find signs of ancient Martian life, Perseverance has already broadened the horizon of our understanding of Mars. Perseverance’s rover cousin Curiosity has been exploring Mars for over 11 years and counting, so hopes are high for Perseverance’s future on Mars, and humanity’s knowledge of the planet.
Leave a Reply