NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is exploring a new region of interest the team is calling “Krokodillen” that may contain some of the oldest rocks on Mars.
“The last five months have been a geologic whirlwind,” said Ken Farley, deputy project scientist for Perseverance from Caltech in Pasadena.
“The Krokodillen rocks formed before Jezero Crater was created, during Mars’ earliest geologic period, the Noachian, and are among the oldest rocks on Mars Data collected from NASA’s Mars orbiters suggest that the outer edges of Krokodillen may also have areas rich in olivine and carbonate.
To date, Perseverance has collected and sealed two regolith (crushed rock and dust) samples, three witness tubes, and one atmospheric sample.
“The environment inside the rover met very strict standards for cleanliness when the rover was built.
Scientists anticipate discovering some of the Red Planet’s oldest rocks in the new area of interest on the lower slope of the rim of Jezero Crater.
Some of the oldest rocks on Mars may be found in a new area of interest that NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is investigating and naming “Krokodillen.”. The location has been on the Perseverance science team’s wish list since it represents a crucial border between the plains outside of Jezero Crater and the oldest rocks on its rim.
Ken Farley, a deputy project scientist for Perseverance at Caltech in Pasadena, described the past five months as a geologic whirlwind. As successful as our investigation of “Witch Hazel Hill” has been, we anticipate that our analysis of Krokodillen will be equally fascinating. “.”.
The 73-acre (roughly 30-hectare) plateau of rocky outcrops downslope to the west and south of Witch Hazel Hill is called Krokodillen (meaning “the crocodile” in Norwegian) by Perseverance mission scientists, who named it after a mountain ridge on the island of Prins Karls Forland, Norway.
This ancient bedrock contains clays, according to a brief earlier investigation into the area. Clays offer crucial hints regarding the environment and habitability of early Mars because they are formed by liquid water. Other clays found in the Krokodillen area would support the theory that there was a lot of liquid water in the area at some point in the distant past, most likely prior to the formation of Jezero Crater from an asteroid impact. Another well-known property of clay minerals is their ability to preserve organic compounds, which are the foundation of life.
In reference to a rock sampled in July 2024 that had chemical signatures and structures that might have been created by life ages ago, Farley stated, “If we find a potential biosignature here, it would most likely be from an entirely different and much earlier epoch of Mars evolution than the one we found last year in the crater with ‘Cheyava Falls.'”. Among the oldest rocks on Mars, the Krokodillen formed during the Noachian, the planet’s earliest geologic period, before Jezero Crater was formed.
There may be olivine and carbonate-rich regions on Krokodillen’s outer edges, according to data gathered from NASA’s Mars orbiters. When rock and dissolved carbon dioxide react in liquid water, carbonate minerals on Earth usually form, but olivine is formed from magma. Earth’s carbonate minerals are renowned for being exceptional recorders of past climate and preservers of fossilized ancient microbial life.
On May 9, the rover commemorated its 1,500th day of surface operations. At the moment, it is examining “Copper Cove,” a rocky outcrop in Krokodillen that might contain Noachian rocks.
Mars Rocks in order of ranking.
When the nuclear-powered rover reaches Krokodillen, it will have a new sampling strategy that permits some cored samples to remain unsealed in case the mission later discovers a geologic feature that is more compelling from a scientific standpoint.
Perseverance has so far gathered and sealed three witness tubes, one atmospheric sample, and two regolith (crushed rock and dust) samples. It has also sealed 25 of the 26 rock cores that it has gathered. The rover’s most recent sample, a rock core taken on April 28 and dubbed “Bell Island” by the team, contains tiny round stones known as spherules and is the only unsealed sample. Eventually, the rover might be instructed to take the tube out of its storage bin and discard the old sample if the scientific team determines a new one should be used in its place.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California’s Perseverance acting project scientist Katie Stack Morgan stated, “We have been exploring Mars for more than four years, and every single filled sample tube we have on board has its own unique and compelling story to tell.”. Since there are still seven empty sample tubes and a large stretch of open road ahead of us, we will leave some tubes unsealed for the time being, including the one that contains the Bell Island core. As we proceed with gathering more interesting and varied rock samples, this approach gives us the most flexibility possible. “”.
The engineering sample team evaluated if a tube left open could compromise a sample’s quality prior to the mission implementing its new approach. No was the response.
When the rover was constructed, its interior was built to extremely high standards of cleanliness. Additionally, the tube is positioned within its own storage bin so that there is very little chance of unneeded material getting inside during upcoming drives and sampling operations, according to Stack Morgan.
The team also evaluated the possibility that leftovers from a discarded sample could “contaminate” a subsequent sample. Although there is a possibility that any material left in the tube from the prior sample might come into contact with the exterior of a new sample, Stack Morgan stated that this is a very small worry and that it is worth the trade-off for the chance to gather the best and most interesting samples when they are discovered. “.”.
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California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
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Michael Fox and Molly Wasser.
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