NASA’s Mars rover has made a ‘strange’ and fascinating find on the Red Planet – a small, crater-stricken greenish rock.
Wednesday’s discovery prompted Perseverance’s instruments to take a closer look, and scientists are trading many hypotheses. according to the rover’s Twitter page.
“While the helicopter is ready,” the report said, referring to a separate mission by the Ingenuity helicopter, “I can not help investigating rocks in the area.
“This stranger traded my science team a lot of hypotheses,” he continued.
‘It’s about 6 inches long. If you look closely, you can spot the row of laser marks where I applied it to learn more. ‘
The rover’s laser is part of the SuperCam instrument, one of seven scientific instruments aboard the robot, according to Space.com.
Information gathered by the laser can help scientists determine whether the small green rock is forming in place or transported to the Jezero crater – an old lake bed – by the movement of water, by a meteor or by another “impact” event. ”
‘Is it something worn out of the local rock? Is it a piece of Mars that was plowed from a distant impact event in the area? Is it a meteorite? Or something else? ”As the rover’s Twitter account explained.
Scientists hope that by the end of the month, perseverance can find a suitable launch site for its mini-helicopter to explore more of the Red Planet.
The $ 2.7 billion Mars 2020 mission began in February and is expected to last several years, eventually preparing NASA for human exploration of the planet’s planet Earth.