ancient life<\/a> and vital information about its geological and climatic past.<\/p>\nNow, a paper titled \u201cGround penetrating radar observations of subsurface structures in the floor of Jezero crater, Mars,\u201d illustrates the first data from Perseverance.<\/p>\n
Examining the Jezero crater<\/h3>\n Perseverance is comparable to the size of a car and is equipped with a multitude of scientific instruments. The Rover has been probing Mars\u2019 30-mile-wide Jezero crater, which many moons ago hosted a Martian lake, making it a prime candidate to explore for signs of ancient life.<\/p>\n
Currently, the Perseverance Rover is analysing a delta on the western edge of the crater, where a river once meandered and supplemented the lake, leaving behind substantial deposits of dirt and rocks it accumulated along its course. The researchers are hoping that as the Rover gathers more data, they will be able to piece together the complex history of Mars.<\/p>\n
Surprising Perseverance Rover data<\/h3>\n Exciting new data obtained with the Perseverance Rover\u2019s ground-penetrating radar instrument has illuminated that the rock layers beneath the Jezero crater\u2019s floor are unexpectedly inclined. The slopes, thicknesses and shapes of the inclined sections indicate they were formed by slowly cooling lava or deposited as sediments in the former lake.<\/p>\n
David Paige, a UCLA professor of Earth, planetary and space sciences and one of the lead researchers on the Radar Imager for Mars Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX), commented: \u201cWe were quite surprised to find rocks stacked up at an inclined angle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were expecting to see horizontal rocks on the crater floor. The fact that they are tilted like this requires a more complex geologic history. They could have been formed when molten rock rose up towards the surface, or they could represent an older delta deposit buried in the crater floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers explained that the Perseverance Rover evidence suggests an igneous or molten origin. However, based on the RIMFAX data, they cannot determine how the inclined layers formed for certain.<\/p>\n
RIMFAX acquires a picture of underground features by emitting bursts of radar waves below the surface, which are reflected by rock layers and other obstacles. These shapes, densities, angles, thickness and compositions of these underground objects affect how the radar waves bounce back, creating a visual image.<\/p>\n
Throughout the first 3-kilometre traverse of the Rover, the instrument obtained a continuous radar image of the electromagnetic properties and bedrock stratigraphy of the crater\u2019s floor to depths of 15 meters.<\/p>\n
The image identified the presence of ubiquitous layered rock strata, including those inclined up to 15 degrees. Additionally, the team discovered highly reflective rock layers that tilt in multiple directions.<\/p>\n
Paige explained: \u201cRIMFAX is giving us a view of Mars stratigraphy similar to what you can see on Earth in highway road cuts, where tall stacks of rock layers are sometimes visible in a mountainside as you drive by. Before Perseverance landed, there were many hypotheses about the exact nature and origin of the crater floor materials. We\u2019ve now been able to narrow down the range of possibilities, but the data we\u2019ve acquired so far suggest that the history of the crater floor may be quite a bit more complicated than we had anticipated.<\/p>\n
\u201cRIMFAX is giving us the backstory of the samples we\u2019re going to analyse. It\u2019s exciting that the Rover\u2019s instruments are producing data, and we\u2019re starting to learn, but there\u2019s a lot more to come. We landed on the crater floor, but now we\u2019re driving up on the actual delta, which is the main target of the mission. This is just the beginning of what we\u2019ll hopefully soon know about Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A study has revealed surprising findings from the Perseverance Rover that illustrate the enigmatic history of Mars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":24842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[771],"tags":[24421,3477],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Perseverance Rover unveils exciting ancient Mars discovery<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n