Mars Perseverance Rover's New 'Comet Geyser' Sample 'Great For Biosignature Studies'

Space.com

NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars has collected its 24th sample of  Jezero Crater. The 'Comet Geyser' sample is "great for biosignature studies," according to the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.   Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Transcript

00:00Sample 24 is called Comet Geyser and we collected it from the Bunsen Peak rock on the margin unit.

00:08The Comet Geyser sample is really exciting for several reasons.

00:12This rock is dominated by silica and carbonate.

00:15These phases are known on Earth to be good at preserving biosignatures.

00:20Carbonate is a phase that forms an association with fluids such as water,

00:25which is really important in our search for evidence for past life on Mars.

00:29It's still a bit of a mystery what this rock is.

00:33There are interesting textures that could be consistent with either an igneous rock or a sedimentary rock.

00:40And that's what makes it so exciting to us as scientists is because we get to put our thinking caps on

00:45and really try and solve this puzzle.

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