Perseverance enters an intriguing rock formation on Mars

June 24 () –

NASA’s Perseverance rover circulates through an area in the Jezero crater on Mars called ‘Bright Angel’, with ancient rocks that They could have been exposed by river erosion of the land.

Closer camera images, Mastcam-Z and SuperCam data showed surface textures on these light-toned rocks that the science team is actively working to understand.

The area features light-toned rock outcrops that may represent ancient sediments that later filled the channel or possibly much older rocks that were later exposed by the erosion of an ancient river, NASA reports.

After a few days to process the images and location, Perseverance executed a planned abrasion on the rocks in front of the rover. This abrasion zone is called ‘Walhalla Glades’ after an ancient archaeological site in the Grand Canyon along the Colorado River, an homage to the location of ‘Bright Angel’ on the edge of the ancient channel of the ancient Neretva Vallis River.

Proximity scientific instruments were deployed to observe the abrasion zone in detail and provide high resolution geochemical data of these rocks.

The science team will take the time to understand all the new data obtained in ‘Bright Angel’, comparing it to rocks Perseverance has investigated in the past and determining whether the area should be included in the sample repository aboard Perseverance. The rocks have sharp ridges, in addition, some of the rocks have spheres which make them look like popcorn.