NASA’s Perseverance rover will soon be able to study rare asteroid impact debris still on the surface. The rover is steadily moving toward Dox Castle, the western edge of Jezero Crater, where scientists suspect the debris is located.
An image of the crater rim taken on March 19. Dox Castle is visible in the background. / Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
As a reminder, Jezero is an impact crater that was formed after an asteroid hit. In more recent times, there was a lake in this place, of which only a dry bottom now remains. Perseverance has been studying the crater since 2021 in order to detect signs that living organisms were present on Mars in ancient times. Dox Castle is located between an area called the Margin Unit, which is on the inner side of the crater rim, and the rim itself. This gives scientists the opportunity to study samples of ancient rocks that were affected by the asteroid impact and were scattered in the area.
“Docks Castle will be our first chance to study the rim. With Perseverance, we can study some of the oldest rocks ever found on the planet,” said Margaret Deahn of Purdue University in Indiana, who is helping to map out the rover’s path to the rim.
Jezero Crater as seen from a slope during a dust storm in August / Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Perseverance began its climb up Jezero in mid-August. The rover has completed the main objectives of its mission, and now scientists are trying to use it to explore a different, much older region than the one the rover has been in so far. The rover is also set to collect 13 soil samples from the area, which scientists hope will one day be returned to Earth for detailed study.
The rover left the previously collected samples at the bottom of the Jezero crater, where they will lie, awaiting the arrival of a device that can pick them up and deliver them to our planet. NASA is developing such a device together with the European Space Agency (ESA), but the timing of the mission to deliver samples from Mars has not yet been determined.
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Source: 3dnews.ru
