How an old Martian river is assisting NASA's Perseverance rover in its journey
NASA will send the Perseverance rover to Mars in 2020. The mission's primary objective is to gather rock samples from the Red Planet that may include proof of ancient microbial life. These samples will be taken from the surface of Mars by a spacecraft that NASA and ESA will deploy to the planet later on, and they will then be brought back to Earth for further analysis. The Perseverance rover is tasked with studying the planet's geology and past climate in order to get ready for human exploration of Mars. According to NASA, the rover's mission is being helped by an ancient river on Mars.
How the ancient Mars river is helping NASA's Perseverance rover
The project's scientific team is excited about one of the most recent samples, which the rover collected in June. The sample that the rover unearthed was made up of minute pieces of other rocks that were carried from someplace else by a river and deposited at the location. At this point, a connection was created between the rock sample.
This complex is known as "Emerald Lake" by NASA. The rock sample, in the opinion of the mission team, will provide a wealth of information about locations the rover may never explore. Each additional rock piece in the conglomerate will symbolize a distinct geologic tale from across the globe.
"Boulders and pebbles in a river are messages from a distance. The tale the streams brought is still current and is preserved in conglomerate rock, despite the fact that the water that formed the Martian riverbed that Perseverance is presently studying evaporated billions of years ago.
The "Otis Peak" core's individual stones and pieces will be visible to scientists when these samples travel back to Earth. This will enable the researchers to ascertain information on the conglomerate's age, the river's environmental conditions at the time of its formation, and whether or not it exhibits traces of prehistoric microbial life.
Prospectors used to constantly monitor rivers for any upstream deposits of possible interest while looking for gold or diamonds. There's no need to get up there to look; let the river do the work, Farley added.
The rock fragments discovered in the Otis Peak sample are also expected to have come from somewhere else and were transported to their present location by an ancient river billions of years ago.
Hindi language:
कैसे एक पुरानी मंगल ग्रह की नदी NASA के Perseverance रोवर को उसकी यात्रा में सहायता कर रही है
