Featured Image Credit: Dima_zel/Getty Images
Topics: Mars, NASA, Science, Space, Technology
Ellie Kemp
Topics: Mars, NASA, Science, Space, Technology
An exciting discovery made by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover might be able to tell us more about how the planets in our solar system formed some 4.1 billion years ago.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sent the Perseverance Rover to Mars on July 30, 2020 in a hunt for 'signs of ancient microbial life' and to collect rock samples.
And it's since been revealed that the rover has collected a rock sample of 'immense scientific interest'.
The Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero Crate, measuring up at 28 miles wide and located on the western edge of a flat plain called Isidis Planitia, 'lying just north of the Martian equator,' NASA explains.
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And it was a recent discovery on the red planet's Blue Hill, located in the larger Shallow Bay area, which sparked delight among scientists.
The rover 'successfully cored and sealed a 2.9-centimeter (1.1-inch) rock sample from Blue Hill, officially named Silver Mountain' which is of 'immense scientific interest'.
The discovery is the first sample from the Noachian-age - between 4.1 and 3.7 billion years ago, as per the ESA - extending back in time to the beginnings of the planet.
The sample contains low-calcium pyroxene, with NASA explaining how Shallow Bay is the only location along its planned route where this mineral was 'identified from orbit', making it 'a one-of-a-kind treasure for future Mars Sample Return analyses'.
Ken Farley, project scientist for Perseverance at Caltech in Pasadena, explained: “These rocks represent pieces of early Martian crust and are among the oldest rocks found anywhere in the solar system."
The rocks are believed to have been thrust from deep inside the planet to its surface by ancient impact billions years ago.
Asteroids and comets were thought to have frequently battered Mars, shaping many of the craters we see today.
Farely added that investigating this new sample could help us understand what both Mars and Earth may have looked like 'in the beginning.'
It might also help to determine whether life could've ever been sustained on Mars, with previous studies suggesting 'meltwater beneath Martian ice could support microbial life'.
The next challenge NASA faces is safely returning these Martian rock samples back to Earth.
The space agency confirmed it would be exploring two different landing missions, with the program and its design expected to be confirmed in the second half of 2026.
The return of the samples means scientists can 'better understand the planet’s geological history and the evolution of climate on the planet, where life may have existed in the past', NASA said.
The discovery can also help the agency prepare 'to safely send the first human explorers to Mars'.