NASA’s Perseverance rover has found “a potential biosignature” of life on Mars in the dry lakebed called Jezero Crater right where a one-time Alabama scientist — planetary scientist Caleb Fassett, once stationed at NASA_Marshall — predicted it might be.
Composed of multiple images from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, this mosaic shows a rocky outcrop called “Wildcat Ridge,” where the rover extracted two rock cores and abraded a circular patch to investigate the rock’s composition. The site is in the delta, a fan-shaped area where, billions of years ago, a river once flowed into a lake in Jezero Crater. Scientists consider this area one of the best places on Mars to search for potential signs of ancient microbial life.
This is actually the second time a NASA rover has found evidence of organic matter in rock-powdered samples. In 2013 NASA’s Curiosity Rover found them, as well, but not in an ancient lake where life could have existed. Perseverance has just done that. Until recently, Marshall was also the work address of planetary scientist Caleb Fassett who first suggested the landing spot as the likely site of an ancient lake where fossils might be recovered. According to his LinkedIn page, Fasset is now a senior research scientist at Brown University in Laurel, Maryland.
“In its analysis of Wildcat Ridge,” NASA went on to say, “the SHERLOC instrument registered the most abundant organic detections on the mission to date.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover hitting paydirt in search of clues about possible past lifeNASA's Perseverance Mars rover has collected and stored samples of rocks made up of minerals and organic compounds that, on Earth, would likely preserve traces of past microbial life, researchers said Thursday.
Read more »
NASA's Mars Perseverance rover finds diversity, hints of microbial life in ancient lake bed rocksNASA's Perseverance rover has spent 1.5 years on Mars exploring an ancient lake bed. Scientists say several rock samples collected on Mars have organic molecules associated with life. A follow-up mission will pick up these samples from Perseverance in 2030.
Read more »
NASA Breakthrough as Rover Finds Strong Signal of Organic Matter on MarsScientists with NASA's Perseverance Mars rover said today that the rover has collected several tantalizing organic rock samples from an ancient river delta on the Red Planet.
Read more »
Perseverance rover finds strong clues in ‘treasure hunt’ for life on MarsInvestigating the site of an ancient river delta, the Perseverance rover has collected some of the most important samples yet on its mission to determine if life ever existed on Mars, according to …
Read more »
NASA's Perseverance rover investigates geologically rich Mars terrainNASA's Perseverance rover is well into its second science campaign, collecting rock-core samples from features within an area long considered by scientists to be a top prospect for finding signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. The rover has collected four samples from an ancient river delta in the Red Planet's Jezero Crater since July 7, bringing the total count of scientifically compelling rock samples to 12.
Read more »