The rocks on Mars that Perseverance collected were in a habitable environment

NASA's Perseverance rover has already collected two rock samples, and now scientists have said that both of them were in

contact with water for a long time.“Our first rocks appear to indicate a potentially habitable, sustainable environment,” said project leader Ken Farley. “It’s very important that the water was there for a long time - this suggests signs of life on Mars.”

The six-wheeled robot was able to collect the first 6 sampleSeptember, and the second on September 8th. Both samples, just over a pen in diameter and about six centimeters long, are now stored in sealed tubes in the rover's cabin. The rover was working in the region of the Jezero crater, located north of the equator, where there was a lake 3.5 billion years ago.

The breed from which the first samples were obtainedturned out to be basaltic in composition and is probably a lava product. Volcanic rocks contain crystalline minerals that are useful for radiometric dating. This, in turn, could help scientists get a picture of the geological development of the region. For example, when the crater was formed, when the lake appeared and disappeared, and how the climate changed over time.

New wireless charging for Mars drone works even during dust storms

“The interesting thing about these breeds is that theyshow signs of sustained interaction with groundwater, ”NASA geologist Katie Stack Morgan said at a press conference. Scientists already knew that there was a lake in the crater, but they could not rule out the possibility that it was only flood waters that had filled the lake for only 50 years. Now they are confident that groundwater has been present on the planet for much longer.

“If water was present in these rocks inover a long period of time, they may have habitable niches that could support ancient microbial life, ”added NASA's Stack Morgan. Salt minerals in rock cores may have trapped tiny bubbles of ancient Martian water.

The researchers also added that salts -excellent minerals to preserve the signs of ancient life on Earth. The same can happen on Mars. NASA wants to return samples to Earth for in-depth laboratory analysis as part of a joint mission with the European Space Agency in the 2030s.

To read Further:

New iOS 15: release date, iPhone design and features. We tell everything that is known

An ultra-thin material was made from white graphene. It will replace servers

See a heavy attack drone that carries a ton of weapons