NASA rover investigates “garden soil” at the bottom of a Martian lake

nasa agency The persevering rover on a road trip through MarsIt means a stop for sightseeing. On Wednesday, NASA shared images of a roadside attraction that caught the attention of the rover team.

The intriguing target is a piece of rock left behind when Jezero Crater was a lake, in the distant past, when Mars was more watery than it is today.

“Look at this piece of rock I found: it looks like garden soil, and it’s probably bare rock”, NASA tweeted With a GIF image of the rover inspecting the location. “Material like this, from the early days of the ancient lake bed, can help capture the shape of this lake.”

Perseverance means registering for a few days on the site to take a closer look. The rover has a lot of science ahead, but one of its main missions is to search for evidence of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. The ancient lake is a great place to explore the past habitability of Mars.

Images shared by NASA show the rover inspecting “floors” with the equipment at the end of its robotic arm.

“The arm allows the rover to function like a human geologist does: by carrying and using scientific instruments ‘by hand’ or a turret,” NASA said in an explanation of the rover. The rover’s “hand tools” extract rock cores, take microscopic images and analyze the elemental and mineral composition of Martian rocks and soils.

NASA’s robotic rover arrived on Mars in February and is on its first official science expedition with its companion Ingenuity helicopter that works like a searchlight. The bedrock investigation is a sign of science to come as the rover recalls the story of ancient Martian history.

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