About three and a half years ago, NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully touched down in the Martian Crater Lake and began searching for possible evidence of life on the Red Planet in the distant past.

To date, Perseverance has collected 24 soil and rock samples; Some of these have been placed in special capsules on the surface of the Red Planet, waiting for other robotic vehicles to deliver them to Earth. According to NASA’s plans, this will happen either by the end of this decade or the early 2030s. Interestingly, the samples include not only rocks but also Martian air.

NASA recently explained why they’re looking forward to analyzing air samples taken from the Red Planet’s atmosphere. The thing is that they will allow you to learn more about the levels of water vapor, neon, argon and xenon.

Because these gases do not react, their presence could provide evidence of Mars’ ancient atmosphere and provide insight into how it changed over time. Gas samples can shed light on the formation and development processes of planets.