Scientists running Perseverance now know where to look for life on Mars

NASA’s much vaunted Perseverance rover landed on Mars’ Jezero crater in February and since then it has brought humanity closer to the red planet by sending back sound bytes, images and much more. Now, researchers have said that the rover, through its images, has also helped them as to where exactly to look for life on Mars. ''Percy touched down in Jezero Crater and ever since has been snapping thousands of images of its surroundings. We're definitely in the right place,” the scientists controlling the Perseverance said.

Their claim is based on analysis of pictures sent by the mars rover. As per the team, Jezero crater is the floor of once a great lake that was fed by a meandering river which entered it from the west. While the water body could have sustained life, it dried up more than 3.5 billion years ago.

Possible remains of microbes

From Perseverance observation, the researchers also found out that the river system met the lake. It was at that point that it slowed its flow eventually resulting in spilling out of sediments, this leading to the formation of a wedge-shaped landform or Delta. According to the researchers, it was here that life could have sustained. The team now aims to dig out possible remains of micro-organisms that may have existed billions of years ago.

"The rover team has long planned to visit the delta because of its potential for harboring signs of ancient microbial life. One of the mission’s primary goals is to collect samples that could be brought to Earth by the multi-mission Mars Sample Return effort, enabling scientists to analyze the material with powerful lab equipment too large to bring to Mars," NASA said in a statement. 

About Perseverance rover 

Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18, 2021, after travelling 471 million kilometres. Its first three months were inactive as the NASA engineers thoroughly checked all its equipment before they put it to work. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) revealed that the photographs that proved the existence of a lake in Jezero were taken during this period by the rover's two cameras, Mastcam-Z and the SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI). Currently, the rover is waiting for the two-week solar conjunction to end and will perform jobs like watching for dust devils and analysing the weather. 

Image: Twitter/@NASAMars