NASA’s Perseverance rover is busy exploring the edge of a big crater on Mars, collecting rock samples that might help us understand if Mars once had life. According to NASA, the rover reached the western edge of Jezero Crater in December and has been studying rocks that formed about 3.9 billion years ago.
A crater is a big bowl-shaped hole in the ground. It forms when something like a meteor hits the surface or when a volcano erupts. Jezero Crater is special because it’s 28 miles wide (about 45 kilometers) and scientists believe it once held a lake about 3.5 billion years ago. This makes it a perfect place to look for signs that tiny life forms, called microbes, might have lived on Mars long ago.
The Perseverance rover has been very busy at Jezero Crater. It has:
- Cored five different rocks to collect samples
- Performed detailed analysis on seven rocks
- Used a special laser to study 83 more rocks from a distance
- Taken many pictures of the area called Witch Hazel Hill
One of the most exciting finds is a rock sample named “Silver Mountain.” Scientists think this rock is about 3.9 billion years old! The rover also found a big boulder containing serpentine minerals. These special green, shiny minerals are important because they can produce hydrogen – which could have been food for tiny life forms if they existed on Mars.
You might wonder what igneous rocks are. These are rocks that form when hot, melted rock (called magma or lava) cools down and becomes solid. On Earth, rocks like granite and basalt are igneous rocks. The rover found many broken pieces of igneous rocks on Mars. Serpentine minerals are green, shiny minerals that form when certain rocks change because of heat and water. On Earth, these minerals can help tiny life forms survive by providing energy.
All these samples aren’t just staying on Mars. They’re part of something called the Mars Sample Return Program. This is a big project where NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are working together to bring Mars rocks back to Earth. The plan works like this: Perseverance collects and seals the samples, then future missions will pick them up and bring them back to Earth by the 2030s.
| Step | What Happens |
|---|---|
| 1 | Perseverance rover collects and seals rock samples |
| 2 | A future Sample Retrieval Lander will collect these samples |
| 3 | A Mars Ascent Vehicle will launch the samples into Mars orbit |
| 4 | An ESA Earth Return Orbiter will carry them back to Earth |
Why is all this important? These ancient Mars rocks can tell us about a time when Mars was warm and wet – very different from the cold, dry planet we see today. Scientists will study these samples with powerful tools we have on Earth to look for tiny signs of past life and to understand how Mars changed over billions of years. The rocks from Jezero Crater are special because they formed when Mars might have been more like Earth, with water that could have supported life.
The Perseverance rover continues its journey around Jezero Crater, looking for more clues about Mars’ past. Each rock it studies helps us decode the history of our neighboring planet and might someday answer one of humanity’s biggest questions: Were we ever alone in our solar system?
