Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover at Jezero Crater is finding a treasure-trove of geological activity. Scientists believe the area was once flooded with water and was home to an ancient river delta.

One major assignment for the rover is exploring for signs of fossilized microbial life.

The robot has imaged “unusual” rocks, and it remains unclear whether these rocks are sedimentary or volcanic.

Mars Perseverance Right Mastcam-Z Camera image acquired on June 13, 2021 (Sol 112). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Multiple hypotheses

“We still have multiple working hypotheses, sedimentary and/or igneous, on the types of rocks we are seeing,” says James W. Rice, Jr. of the Mars 2020 Rover Mastcam-Z Science Team at Arizona State University in Tempe.

“There has been no conclusive evidence thus far, but as we continue to bring our whole science payload into use we will figure this out. We have not done any contact science yet but rather have been using remote sensing at this point,” Rice tells Inside Outer Space. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Delta deposit

It’s all very nice looking data, but it is a little early to tell much, adds John Mustard in the Department of Earth Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

“What I can say is that they have imaged a rock outcrop that looks all-the-world like a delta deposit with flat lying topset with sloping foreset beds,” Mustard says. A foreset bed is one of the main parts of a river delta.

As for volcanism at Jezero Crater, “volcanism is a good partner for microbial life, depending on how they interact, but volcanism can produce warm, nutrient rich waters that microbes adore,” Mustard told Inside Outer Space.

Dust devil: NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Left Mastcam-Z camera, acquired on June 15, 2021 (Sol 114).
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU