The Perseverance rover found volcanic rocks on Mars that werenʼt supposed to be there

NASAʼs Perseverance Mars rover found volcanic rocks at the bottom of Jesero Crater on Mars.

This is reported by Space.com.

The find came as a complete surprise, as the Perseverance rover was expected to land on sedimentary rocks that formed from silt and detritus in an ancient lake in Jesero Crater about 3.7 billion years ago.

"We were very happy to find igneous rocks... Most of us expected to study rocks deposited in the lake, and it took us a long time to accept the fact that the rocks at the bottom of the crater erupted," said the geochemistry professor California Institute of Technology Ken Farley.

The origin of the igneous rocks in the crater remains a mystery because there are no obvious volcanic features in or near the crater, Farley said.

Unlike previous rovers, Perseverance can store rock and soil samples. Now NASA and the European Space Agency are working on a mission to send samples to Earth. It is planned to be launched in 2028. So Perseverance has already preserved important samples of the volcanic rocks found at the bottom of the crater. According to Professor Ken Farley, the igneous rocks will be easier to date in an Earth laboratory.

Scientists believe the discovery of volcanic rocks could hold the key to unraveling the climatic history of Mars and determining exactly when it was wet and potentially habitable.

• Also, the European Space Agency, together with Italian scientists, is creating a robotic arm that will help deliver soil samples from Mars to Earth. She will take the soil sample tubes from the Perseverance rover, put them all in a container, place it on the vehicle that will return to Earth, and close the lid.