Jezero Crater

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Jezero crater was chosen as the landing site for the Mars 2020 rover mission.[1] [2] [3] Perseverance was the name picked for the rover; it landed right on target near the delta on February 18, 2021.[4]

Jezero is an impact crater located at 18.855 N and 77.519 E (282.481 W) in the Syrtis Major quadrangle.[5] [6] It is 47.52 Km in diameter.[7] The crater was named after one of the towns with this name in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[8]

Features near Jezero Crater

                             Features near Jezero Crater

Close view of features in and around Jezero Crater

                    Close view of features in and around Jezero Crater

Rivers on the left side of Jezero carried water into the crater, while the overflow went out at the upper right.

Rivers on the left side of Jezero carried water into the crater, while the overflow went out at the upper right.


Jezero Crater Delta

Drawing and actual pictures of Perseverance actual landing on Mars

                  Drawing and actual pictures of Perseverance actual landing on Mars

This is the first 360-degree panorama taken by Mastcam-Z, a zoomable pair of cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover


This is the first 360-degree panorama taken by Mastcam-Z, a zoomable pair of cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.

Rocket Scour and Wheel Prints https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24488 Taken on March 5, 2021, this color-calibrated image from a Navigation Camera aboard NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover shows tracks from the rover's first drive (darker marks in the foreground) and an area scoured by the Mars 2020 mission's descent stage rockets (lighter-colored area in the middle ground).

Rocket Scour and Wheel Prints https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24488 Taken on March 5, 2021, this color-calibrated image from a Navigation Camera aboard NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover shows tracks from the rover's first drive (darker marks in the foreground) and an area scoured by the Mars 2020 mission's descent stage rockets (lighter-colored area in the middle ground).


Features near Jezero Crater

                             Features in Jezero Crater near delta

Distances from landing site to various features in Jezero Crater

                       Distances from landing site to various features in Jezero Crater

Possible paths for Perseverance in Jezero Crater Possible paths for Perseverance in Jezero Crater Mesa is shown from the ground and from orbit.

Thought to have once been flooded with water, the crater contains a fan-delta deposit rich in clays.[9] The lake in the crater was present when valley networks were forming on Mars.[10] [11] Besides having a delta, the crater shows point bars and inverted channels. From a study of the delta and channels, it was concluded that water stayed in the lake for a time; it did not experience times when the water went down. It probably formed when there was continual surface runoff.[12] Jezero Crater is found on the western edge of Isidis Planitia, which is a giant impact basin just north of the Martian equator. This location contains some of the oldest and most scientifically interesting landscapes of Mars. It is thought that Jezero may hold ancient organic molecules and other signs of microbial life because water and sediments collected in the crater billions of years ago when conditions were much more favorable for life.

A team, lead by Briony Horgan used the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), high resolution imagery, and digital elevation models, to discover places in Jezero Crater that contain carbonates. These minerals they named “Marginal Carbonates” are found along the inside margin of the crater, near the largest valley and in a delta in the west. The authors of the paper believe they were formed in an old lake in Jezero. Evidence of life could be found in these deposits by the 2020 Rover. Even large fossils of strmatolites could be present.[13] [14]

The Mars 2020 rover mission will be able to examine at least 5 types of rock, including clays and carbonates.[15] These can preserve signs of ancient life. Additional materials probably washed in from the surroundings; therefore, we will be able to determine mineral information about the area around the crater.

Activities and discoveries by Perseverance

On September 6, 2021 NASA announced that Perseverance rover collected its first sample of a Martian rock. Perseverance’s rotary-percussive drill on its robotic arm cored into a flat, briefcase-size rock. It has been called “Rochette.” The sample was slightly thicker than a pencil. It is now enclosed in an airtight titanium sample tube, making it available for retrieval in the future. NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are planning future missions to return the rover’s sample tubes to Earth. This first sample was placed in sample tube serial number 266.[16]

The collection from Rochette came a month after the rover tried and failed to collect a sample from another rock, called “Roubion.” The first sample attempt failed because the rock was softer; hence it crumbled.[17]

Before drilling to get the core sample from the rock, scientists used instruments on the rover to learn more about its composition. They determined that the rock was basaltic and contained salt crystals. The salts may have formed from groundwater or more likely from liquid water that had evaporated into the thin Martian atmosphere. It is hoped that the crystals may also have trapped tiny bubbles of water.[18]


In October 2021, an article was published online by the journal Science about some initial results from photos from Perseverance. It was confirmed that there is an actual delta in Jezero Crater because the typical layers in a delta were seen. Scientists called them bottomsets, foresets and topsets. They were found in a steeply fronted Gilbert-type delta. Since meter-scale boulders were found that may have traveled tens of km, the researchers believe that much rapidly moving water was present at times.[19] [20]

In December 2021, it was announced that some of the rocks in Jezero were igneous.[21] [22] They had once been molten and then slowly cooled. At first ,it looked like many of the rocks photographed by Jezero's camera were sedimentary due to the presence of layering. But, when examined closely, the rocks revealed the mineral olivine surrounded by the mineral pyroxene. That arrangement happens in thick magma bodies and geologists call this type of texture "Cumulate."[23] Carbonate and sulfate minerals were also detected which means that the rocks had been altered by water. The rocks studied were in location nicknamed "South Séítah." "Séítah" (means "amidst the sand" in the Navajo language.[24] The instrument used for this analysis was the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL). It uses X-ray fluorescence to determine the elemental composition of rocks.[25]

Two formations, called Maaz and Seitah, are both igneous. Seitah is classified as an olivine-rich cumulate which means it cooled slowly in a thick mass. Maaz is rich in the minerals pyroxene and plagioclase. It cooled quicker on the top of a mass of magma or lava. Water has altered the chemistry of the rock because carbonate, iron oxides, amorphous silicates, sulfates, halite, perchlorates, phosphates, and possible phyllosilicates were found[26] [27]


At the same time, NASA said that organic compounds were found by the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument. These organics are not only inside of abraded rocks SHERLOC analyzed, but in the dust on non-abraded rock.

Perseverance uses ground-penetrating radar to look under the surface of Mars. RIMFAX (Radar Imager for Mars' Subsurface Experiment) produces a “radargram” of subsurface features up to about 33 feet (10 meters) deep. Scientists found that rock formations with a downward tilt continue into the subsurface.[28]

Many dust devils were detected by Perseverance. In the first 216 Martian days (Sols), the Perseverance Rover in Jezero Crater found that at least four dust devils pass Perseverance on a typical Martian day and that more than one per hour passes by during a peak hourlong period just after noon. Perseverance made these observations mostly with the its cameras and a group of sensors in the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA). MEDA includes wind sensors and light sensors.[29] [30]

In August 2022, four papers were published describing the kinds of rocks found in Jezero Crater so far.[31] [32] [33] [34] Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag This formation of olivine-rich rocks went from the inside edge of Jezero Crater (called the Séítah formation) into the surroundings. It was almost the size of South Carolina. By grinding into rocks, Perseverance found that olivine crystals were large which means that they formed underground in slowly cooling masses of magma (hot, liquid rock).[35] When samples are returned to Earth, scientists will be able to date the rocks and find out when lava last covered the floor. Lakes, with possible life, would have occurred before that time. Thus, we would know when life may have been in the lake.[36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41]

Researchers recognize a low unit that is a coarsely crystalline olivine-rich rock. Such rocks are known to be formed slowly at the base of large magma bodies. This unit has been named Séítah. Séítah is the lowest exposed stratigraphic unit on Jezero's floor. Carbonates are found in these rocks from reactions with carbon dioxide-rich water. On top of Seitah lies a rock unit called Máaz. It is a lava flow. Voids in these rocks hold perchlorates and sulfates. Those minerals probably resulted from the evaporation of mineral-rich groundwater.[42] [43]

References

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See Also

External links