Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

A piece of this Martian rock could be coming to Earth

Trevor Mogg
By

NASA’s Perseverance rover will soon try for the second time to collect a sample of Martian rock for return to Earth.

Scientists hope that the gathered material will reveal if microbial life ever existed on the planet.

Recommended Videos

Perseverance’s first collection attempt ended in failure earlier this month as the drilled sample was too crumbly, causing it to slip out of the collection tube.

Related

In search of another, more stable rock, Perseverance has spent the last few weeks tootling 1,493 feet (455 meters) across the Martian surface.

Its latest rock of interest, which the team has named “Rochette,” looks to be robust enough to resist wind erosion, “a sign that it’s more likely to hold up during drilling,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is overseeing the Mars mission, said this week.

To determine if the rock is likely to yield a sample that the rover’s collection tube can retain, Perseverance will first use its 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm to scrape a section of the rock’s surface. This process will allow scientists to get a better look at its composition so they can decide whether it’s worth moving onto the drilling stage.

Several photos of Perseverance’s current location were shared on the rover’s Twitter account.

“The rocks on top of this ridge have been sitting here getting sandblasted by Mars winds for eons,” Perseverance said in the tweet.

The rocks on top of this ridge have been sitting here getting sandblasted by Mars winds for eons. This one looks like a good, solid target for my next drilling effort. Next step: abrade a small test patch. #SamplingMars

Read more: https://t.co/6uP4bmJRM4 pic.twitter.com/chDy0L3YNG

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) August 26, 2021

If everything goes according to plan, Perseverance will gather a sample of rock slightly thicker than a pencil and then seal it in one of the rover’s 42 remaining titanium tubes.

Toward the end of its mission, Perseverance will leave its collected samples on the surface of Mars for collection by a later mission that will become the first to transport Martian rock to Earth.

Interestingly, although the first attempt at gathering a rock sample ended in failure, the effort wasn’t entirely fruitless as the tube ended up with a sample of Martian atmosphere, something the team was planning to acquire later in the mission.

Now that Perseverance is in position, the scraping process is likely to take place any day now, with the sample collection taking place soon after, should the team decide to proceed.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
NASA’s June skywatching tips include Mars in the Beehive
how to photograph perseid meteor shower night sky with

NASA is back again with its monthly roundup of what to look out for in the sky over the coming weeks.

Kicking right off with Thursday and Friday, Mars finds itself in the Beehive Cluster, a group of stars also known as Praesepe or M44 that’s around 600 light years away.

Read more
See a 3D view of a martian crater captured by the Perseverance rover
A snippet of the mosaic of Belva Crater taken by the Perseverance rover.

The Jezero crater on Mars, where NASA's Perseverance is currently exploring, is vast at nearly 30 miles across and was likely created by a huge asteroid impact. But there wasn't just one asteroid impact -- it's thought that several asteroids hit the area over millions of years, creating a succession of craters that overlap and fit within each other.

A snippet of the mosaic of Belva Crater taken by the Perseverance rover. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Read more
James Webb investigates mystery of where Earth’s water comes from
This illustration of Comet 238P/Read shows the main belt comet sublimating—its water ice vaporizing as its orbit approaches the Sun. This is significant, as the sublimation is what distinguishes comets from asteroids, creating their distinctive tail and hazy halo, or coma. It is especially important for Comet Read, as it is one of 16 identified main belt comets found in the asteroid belt, as opposed to the colder Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud, more distant from the Sun. Comet Read was one of three comets used to define the class of main belt comets in 2006.

As wild as it might sound, scientists have a theory that water on Earth didn't actually originate here: the first water may have been brought to our planet by a comet. To understand whether that is the case, astronomers look to the comets commonly found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and recent research using the James Webb Space Telescope has identified a clue in this long-standing mystery.

Researchers used Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument to look at the composition of a comet in the asteroid belt, and they found evidence of water vapor around a comet in this area for the first time. Looking at Comet 238P/Read showed nearby vapor, supporting the idea that water could be carried by such a comet. While many comets come from more distant locations like the far-off Oort cloud, which is a long way from the sun where it is easier for water ice to survive, this particular comet hangs out in the main asteroid belt.

Read more