The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Perseverance rover has discovered volcanic rocks on the Red Planet in Crater Lake, which was once a lake.
As reported by Ukrinform, this was reported by Space.com.
“We were very happy to find igneous rocks. Most of us expected to study the rocks that had accumulated in the lake, and it took us a long time to realize the fact that the rocks at the bottom of the crater were igneous,” said Ken Farley, professor of geochemistry at Caltech. incumbent scientist. NASA.
The discovery of the volcanic rocks came as a surprise, as the Perseverance rover was expected to land on sedimentary rocks composed of silt and debris in an ancient lake that still fills the landing site at Crater Lake about 3.7 billion years ago.
According to Farley, the origin of the igneous rocks in the Lake has remained a mystery until now, as there are no obvious volcanic features in or near the crater.
As reported by Ukrinform, the Perseverance spacecraft was sent to Mars along with the Ingenuity helicopter as part of the NASA research mission on February 18, 2021.
One of its missions is to collect rock samples on Mars, which will be taken to Earth by a special joint mission of the European Space Agency and NASA.
Photo: NASA