"Right now one of the most advanced planetary explorers ever built is scouring the surface of Mars. Supported by a team of hundreds of scientists back on Earth, the Perseverance rover has traveled nearly the distance of a marathon to answer some of the biggest questions about our neighboring world: What was the planet like eons ago? Was it ever habitable? Did it host life?"
"One rock visited by Perseverance, called Cheyava Falls, is speckled with iron-rich minerals that might be able to answer these questions, scientists announced in September. On Earth the presence of these minerals usually means microbes that used iron in the chemical reactions essential to their metabolism once lived there. Does the same hold true on Mars? A piece of Cheyava Falls is safely tucked inside the rover's storage cache."
Perseverance rover is exploring Mars to investigate ancient environmental conditions and potential past life. The rover traveled nearly a marathon distance and collected samples, including a rock named Cheyava Falls with iron-rich minerals. On Earth, similar minerals often indicate past microbes that metabolized iron, so the Cheyava Falls sample could reveal whether Mars once hosted life. A fragment of Cheyava Falls is stored in the rover's sample cache for potential return to Earth. The Mars Sample Return campaign, which would retrieve those samples, faces proposed cancellation by the Trump administration, leaving the mission’s future dependent on U.S. Congressional decisions and unsettling scientists.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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