The images are of the western fan-shaped deposit of sediments - the delta. “When we bring those rocks back, we'll be able to analyze them for the chemical signatures of life.” What’s new - The study team used images captured by Perseverance during the rover’s first three months on Mars. “For Jezero Crater, it was inferred that there was a delta from orbital data.”īut the recent analysis of the images of Jezero Crater shows clear signatures of an ancient delta on Mars through long-distance observations. “It completely changes once you land on the ground and you can actually see the rocks in detail,” Gupta says. This is why the new Science study marks a change in direction. We mostly know this from data collected by orbiting satellites. But mounting evidence suggests the Red Planet was once a warm, wet world with lakes and rivers. What you need to know first - If you look at a photo of Mars, you’ll see a dry, desert-like terrain. It reveals a delta remanent that stretches 660 feet across. This image was captured by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z instrument on February 22. In the best-case scenario, these rocks will contain evidence of ancient life. These images are clues: a way to help the rover narrow down and select the type of rock it should choose as a mission sample. He worked at the Gulf of Suez in the Sinai Peninsula - an experience that helped him make a critical connection: the same signs that signal a delta in Egypt were showing up on Mars.Īccording to a study co-authored by Gupta and published Thursday in the journal Science, Perseverance’s initial images are the first ground-based evidence that Mars may have once housed a delta branching out into a lake in Jezero Crater. “Then we started analysis and we thought, well this is actually very exciting because this is exactly what one would expect.”īack on Earth, Gupta is a terrestrial geologist. “You could see these large inclined beds that are dipping,” Gupta tells Inverse. The next day, the team captured images during Mars’ early morning light. The lighting was bad - and the ground control team couldn’t see the site’s details. Sanjeev Gupta, a member of the Perseverance science team, recalls the first batch of images. Shortly after the Perseverance rover landed on Mars on February 18, the car-sized robot captured its first images of Jezero Crater.
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