The sedimentary rock sample that one of the two NASA robots on duty on Mars just dug up shows that it is identical to the “treasures of life” discovered on Earth.
The new “Mars treasure” was collected by Perseverance, the second rover NASA has sent to the red planet, on duty in Jerero, a giant crater thought to contain an entire European delta. ancient land.
“We chose Jezero for Perseverance because we thought it would have the best chance of collecting scientifically amazing samples. Now we know we sent the rover to the right location” – Sci -News quoted Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s Deputy Director for Science.
The above statement concerns two interesting samples that Perseverance has just collected and preliminary analyzed with the neat tools it has equipped for its exploration of Mars.
Even though the mini “lab” named SHERLOC mounted on NASA robots cannot provide details about samples like laboratories on Earth, it is enough to verify 2 samples from the “Wildcat Ridfe” rock – yes. likely formed billions of years ago when fine mud and sand settled in an evaporating saltwater lake – containing a special type of organic molecule.
Preliminary analysis shows that this Martian organic molecule is spatially correlated with molecules of sulfate minerals, which paleontologists still find in Earth’s sedimentary rocks and consider like treasure.
This type of molecule can contain important information preserved for billions of years about the aquatic environment in which they formed, not to mention is what preserves microscopic evidence of ancient life on Earth.
Earth and Mars are two planets with quite similar properties and are both located in the “life zone” of the solar system, and are believed to have had similar environments with rivers and oceans crisscrossing the surface. . Therefore, this Martian sample is expected to have the same properties as the sample on Earth – that is, contain a form of tangible evidence of alien creatures.
Dr. Ken Farley, a researcher from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech – USA) and a member of the Perseverance project, said that to identify the robot samples NASA has just collected contains long-awaited evidence of authenticity. about alien creatures or not, it will be necessary to wait for this sample to be brought back to Earth and analyzed using specialized techniques.
While waiting for the sample return campaign, two famous NASA robots, Perseverance and Curiosity, continue their journey to search for other potential samples.
In 2014, Curioisity – an older robot whose mission has long expired but still… runs without fail – found the first evidence of “building blocks of life” on the red planet thanks to the sample Rock powder from Gale crater.