NASA ’s Perseverance Mars rover has just collected its twenty-sixth sample , call " Silver Mountain " , and NASA has confirmed not only does it have curious textures " unlike anything we ’ve construe before " but it ’s the honest-to-goodness one yet .
Perseverance has been exploring a site called Blue Hill that has been described by the skill team as of “ immense scientific interest . ” This is part of the Shallow Bay site and it is plenteous in a very curious type of pyroxene , an significant mineral found in many eruptive sway . Pyroxene minerals are among the most common ingredient of the Earth ’s upper mantle . The rover has also been studying stone with serpentine , a chemical group of green mineral that might have shape from magma meeting water .
The region has grim - atomic number 20 pyroxene and might be linked to a much heavy sway unit perceptible from space . alas , Blue Hill is the only outcropping on Perseverance ’s way which makes this exploration invaluable , so it grabbed a sampling .
The sample, officially named “Silver Mountain”.Imagecredit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
" My twenty-sixth sample distribution , known as ' Silver Mountain , ' has textures unlike anything we ’ve visualise before , " the prescribed Perseverance account shared in a post onX.
The careen , which assess 2.9 centimetre ( 1.1 inches ) across , is unique beyond the pyroxene . It is the old sampling yet collected by Perseverance . It is from the Nochian epoch , an historic period in Mars ’s geological story that ranges from 3.7 to 4.1 billion year ago .
“ Between our Noachian - aged pyroxene sample and the newfound focus on serpentine - have rock’n’roll , our journey through Jezero Crater has never been more exciting . Each step — each scan , each driving force , each core sample — impart us nearer to sympathise Mars ’ complex past tense , ” Nicolas Randazzo , a Postdoctoral Scientist at the University of Alberta , drop a line on theNASA blog .
The sample is among the many that are ask to be delivered to Earth with the Mars Sample Return . The missionary station has suffered several setbacks and it has now beendelayed by NASA . Its hereafter look on the next NASA administrator . With the Trump administration’ssustained attacks on Science in the US , it is unclear what that future might be .
