An instrument called Sherloc captures close-up images of the rock of interest and produces a detailed map of the minerals present, including all organics. Another instrument called Pixl would then tell scientists the elemental, or chemical, composition of the same area.
In this data set, scientists will “look for concentrations of elements essential to life, minerals, and molecules – including organic matter. Especially, [when] they are concentrated in forms that signal strong biological presence”, Ken said. Williford.
Finding common threads from the various existing evidence is very important; visual identification alone will not be enough to convince scientists of a biological origin, given the extremely high standards for claiming the existence of extra-terrestrial life. A discovery tends to be referred to as a possible sign of life until the rock is sent to Earth for analysis.
About stromatolites, Dr. Williford explains: “The layers tend to be irregular and wrinkled, as you’d expect from a group of microbes living on top of one another. They can all become fossils that can be seen even by a camera.
“But when we look at shapes like that and, perhaps, one layer has a different chemical composition than the other, but there are some repeating patterns, or we see organic matter concentrated in certain layers — those are the biological markers we hope to find. .”
But Mars doesn’t reveal his secrets easily. In 2019, scientists from the mission visited Australia to familiarize themselves with fossil stromatolites that formed 3.48 billion years ago in the Pilbara region.
“We had to work harder to search [on Mars] than we did when we were in the Pilbara … our knowledge of stromatolite locations comes from many geologists who have mapped the region for decades,” said Ken Williford.
On Mars, he says, “we’re the first.”
But what if the rover doesn’t see anything as big and clear as a stromatolite?
On Earth, we can detect microbial fossils at the individual cellular level. But to see it scientists have to cut a slice of rock, sharpen it to the level of a sheet of paper, and observe it under a microscope.
The rover robot cannot do this. But maybe it’s not necessary.
“It’s very rare to find microbes that live alone,” said Dr. Williford.
“While they were alive – if they were like microbes on Earth – they would have joined in tiny communities that formed structures or clumps of cells that robots could detect.”
After exploring the bottom of the crater, scientists will take the robot to the rim of the crater. Rock cores retrieved here, after analysis on Earth, can tell the age of the impact that formed the crater and the lake’s maximum age.
But there’s another reason scientists are interested in crater rims. When a large object from space hits rock that contains water, the resulting energy can form a hydrothermal system — where hot water flows through the rock. The hot water dissolves the minerals in the rock, providing the materials needed for life.
“If that happens, it will be the first life support environment at Jezero Crater,” said Ken Williford. This evidence – along with other signs of life in the environment – could be preserved on the crater rim.
The latest mission scenario also hopes to bring a robotic rover into the Syrtis region in the northeast.
The region is more ancient than Jezero, and there is thought to be exposed carbonate — which could have formed in a different way than in the crater.
If, at the end of the mission, no signs of past life are found, the search is not over. The focus will shift to the relief core, awaiting delivery to Earth.
However, there remains the prospect that this mission will not only raise new questions, but also answers. The results can be surprising.
Whatever Perseverance discovers, we are on the verge of a new phase in our understanding of our neighboring planet.
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