Science & technology | Areology

The latest news from Mars

NASA’s rover has imaged what could be the remnant of an ancient river delta

Santa CruzContributed by Ken HerkenhoffThis enhanced-color Mastcam-Z image was taken on sol 68 (April 29, 2021) at 110 mm focal length, the maximum zoom setting. It shows features of the martian landscape at various distances, illustrating the vastness of Jezero crater. The boulders at the bottom of the image are close enough to the rover to allow pits and flutes to be visible, likely formed by wind-blown sand grains impacting the boulders. Many more boulders are visible behind them, out to a rocky ridge in the middle distance. Farther still is a large hill — named Santa Cruz — that dominates the skyline left of center; this hill is likely a remnant of the river delta that once extended farther into the crater and has more recently been partly eroded away. Finally, the Jezero crater rim forms the skyline right of center. I like this image because it gives a nice perspective of the landscape, from near to far.April 29, 2021 NASA's Perseverance Mars rover snapped this view of a hill in Mars' Jezero Crater called "Santa Cruz" on April 29, 2021, the 68th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. About 20 inches (50 centimeters) across on average, the boulders in the foreground are among the type of rocks the rover team has named "Ch'al" (the Navajo term for "frog" and pronounced "chesh"). Perseverance will return to the area in the next week or so.Composed of multiple images, this enhanced-color mosaic was created using the left- and right-eye views of Perseverance's Mastcam-Z camera system, merging the scene into a single, wider view. Santa Cruz hill is a possible eroded remnant of Jezero Crater's western delta. The hill is about 164 feet (50 meters) tall and was roughly 1.6 miles (2.5 kilometers) east of the rover when the photo was taken, viewed from "Van Zyl Overlook."A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past cli

The hill in the distance, 50 metres high and known as Santa Cruz, is thought to be the remnant of an ancient river delta. The rounded boulders lying in front of it are a type named Ch’ał (a Navajo word for frog), and contain pyroxenes. These are minerals made from silicon, oxygen, aluminium and a smattering of calcium, sodium, iron, magnesium and other metals. The image itself was taken by Mastcam-Z, an instrument on NASA’s Mars rover, Perseverance, near its landing site in Jezero crater. It was released this week as part of a trio of papers that detail the mission’s most comprehensive geological investigations yet. For more than 20 months, Perseverance has trundled around the Martian surface and, with its suite of spectrometers and cameras, has analysed the regolith and rocks in its immediate vicinity. If microbial life ever did exist on Mars, there could be clues to its nature hidden in the geology (or, strictly speaking, areology) of the regolith lying around in Jezero today.■

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This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline "Perseverance perseveres"

Science & technology November 26th 2022

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