Perseverance, Mars 2020 Rover : Updates

[jstrotha0975]

It's swamp gas.

[Star One]

Nature paper.

Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars

Abstract
The Perseverance rover has explored and sampled igneous and sedimentary rocks within Jezero Crater to characterize early Martian geological processes and habitability and search for potential biosignatures1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Upon entering Neretva Vallis, on Jezero Crater’s western edge8, Perseverance investigated distinctive mudstone and conglomerate outcrops of the Bright Angel formation. Here we report a detailed geological, petrographic and geochemical survey of these rocks and show that organic-carbon-bearing mudstones in the Bright Angel formation contain submillimetre-scale nodules and millimetre-scale reaction fronts enriched in ferrous iron phosphate and sulfide minerals, likely vivianite and greigite, respectively. This organic carbon appears to have participated in post-depositional redox reactions that produced the observed iron-phosphate and iron-sulfide minerals. Geological context and petrography indicate that these reactions occurred at low temperatures. Within this context, we review the various pathways by which redox reactions that involve organic matter can produce the observed suite of iron-, sulfur- and phosphorus-bearing minerals in laboratory and natural environments on Earth. Ultimately, we conclude that analysis of the core sample collected from this unit using high-sensitivity instrumentation on Earth will enable the measurements required to determine the origin of the minerals, organics and textures it contains.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09413-0

Related National Geographic article.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/mars-rock-alien-life-microbes-chemistry

[catdlr]

VIDEO and Article:  NASA Unveils Potential Evidence of Ancient Martian Life in Peculiar Rock Patterns

Did NASA's Rover Find Ancient Life on Mars?

[sanman]

Was there life on Mars? How could that affect our future plans on the Red Planet?

[sanman]

NASA news release:

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-says-mars-rover-discovered-potential-biosignature-last-year/


Latest publication in the journal Nature:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02597-5

[Star One]

So now we’ve got two threads covering this as much of this has been posted in the Perserverance thread.

[catdlr]

So now we’ve got two threads covering this as much of this has been posted in the Perserverance thread.

Agreed, Locked. I'll merge into the Perserverance thread in a few hours or later today.  There really isn't much happening in that thread, so this would be a good kick-starter for it.

Tony

[catdlr]

Eric Berger
@SciGuySpace
·
1h
Here’s what probably will happen NASA’s proposed Mars Sample Return mission.

https://x.com/SciGuySpace/status/1966264554981355644



Article:  NASA found intriguing rocks on Mars, so where does that leave Mars Sample Return?

[ChrisC]

It was linked up three days ago in this thread, but I'll link it again because it might be lost in all the subsequent coverage.  Here is the actual NASA press conference, including the longer commentary by actual scientists.  This Youtube link / embed is cued up to when the Administrator starts the briefing (at 17m23s), but skip ahead 4.5 minutes to get to the science leadership Nikky Fox, Lindsay Hays, Katie Stack Morgan and Joel Hurowitz providing their commentary.  New admin Amit Kshatriya was there too but apparently didn't get to speak.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-StZggK4hhA&t=17m23s

[Blackstar]

https://x.com/SciGuySpace/status/1966264554981355644

"Right now it's only a notion, but I think I can get money to make it into a concept ... and later turn it into an idea."

[ChrisC]

I've only just started watching the actual press briefing, but up front I'm surprised to see Katie Stack Morgen billed as the Project Scientist for the mission.  Previously, for nearly a decade, she has been the Deputy PS, and Ken Farley was the PS.  I'm not finding any announcement of Katie's promotion, only a mention a couple months ago of her being Acting PS, and Ken now being the Deputy PS.  Her bios in various places still list her as Deputy, although she's clearly billed as primary here and as Acting a couple months ago.

These kinds of leadership changes normally at least get a press release.  Well, JPL did suffer huge headcount losses, and that certainly includes communications, so maybe it happened without an announcement.  Godspeed to all the JPLers suffering through this disruptive time.

[Star One]

In a landmark announcement, NASA revealed that the Perseverance rover has discovered a potential biosignature in a rock sample named “Sapphire Canyon” from Cheyava Falls, in the Bright Angel formation in Jezero Crater—collected in July 2024. The sample’s sedimentary rocks, rich in organic carbon, sulfur, oxidized iron, and phosphorus, along with newly identified “leopard spots” made of vivianite and greigite, suggest chemical environments that on Earth preserve microbial life. The finding—reported in Nature—marks perhaps the closest we’ve yet come to finding evidence of ancient life on Mars. Dr. Steven Benner joins John to discuss this finding in detail.

[Star One]

Eric Berger
@SciGuySpace
·
1h
Here’s what probably will happen NASA’s proposed Mars Sample Return mission.

https://x.com/SciGuySpace/status/1966264554981355644



Article:  NASA found intriguing rocks on Mars, so where does that leave Mars Sample Return?

If I had to bet, it would surprise me if they didn’t go for option 2, as I could see that appealing to the current administration more than the other two.

[catdlr]

Potential Bio Signatures on Mars? - The Flame Trench

[catdlr]

Has NASA Found 3 Billion-Year-Old Dead Martians? Why A Green Crystal Could Be A Biosignature!

Sep 12, 2025
New research based upon measurements of microscopic spots in rocks on Mars has discovered minerals associated with biological processes on earth, and after months of trying to find an alternate explanation and failed they've concluded this could be the best evidence for martian life so far.
We could verify this in days..... if we could get the sample back to Earth.

[Holger Isenberg]

In case anyone likes to see the Martian Leopard Spots and Poppy Seeds in better colors, here a few attached below and linked from my daily Perseverance Rover website.

Posting with more background, also about the surprisingly U-shaped valley (not a V-shaped river valley) on https://x.com/areoinfo/status/1965199902201577525

I don't know why most of the time the images were shown in raw sensor data which is not meant to be viewed directly as the colors are false. Explained with examples here: https://x.com/areoinfo/status/1965815582559019294

Image source:
https://areo.info/mars20/ecams/1197/
https://areo.info/mars20/ecams/1205/

[Holger Isenberg]

These chunks of soil are stuck on the vertical outside of the half meter sized rover wheel on mission day 1688 (November 19, 2026) and behave like wet clay. Never before has this effect been observed on a Mars rover as the otherwise dry material falls off quickly from any vertical surface. Only extremely fine dust sticks electrostatically, but those chunks now on sol 1688 are too big to be explained by electric effects and they are neither rock-like material wedged into the profile. The traces in the wheel tracks show similar pattern as driving over wet clay on Earth.

Clay with its nano-pores, or in case of phyllosilicates its layers, can bind large amounts of water in its molecular lattice.

More images starting at https://areo.info/mars20/ecams/1688 and later days, displayed in high dynamic range HDR when opened with Chrome or Opera on Macbooks and android phone ore with the free areoHDR app in iPhone / iPad.

[Dalhousie]

These chunks of soil are stuck on the vertical outside of the half meter sized rover wheel on mission day 1688 (November 19, 2026) and behave like wet clay. Never before has this effect been observed on a Mars rover as the otherwise dry material falls off quickly from any vertical surface. Only extremely fine dust sticks electrostatically, but those chunks now on sol 1688 are too big to be explained by electric effects and they are neither rock-like material wedged into the profile. The traces in the wheel tracks show similar pattern as driving over wet clay on Earth.

Clay with its nano-pores, or in case of phyllosilicates its layers, can bind large amounts of water in its molecular lattice.

I wonder if there is any relation to the extremely sticky soil seen at the Phoenix site? https://www.space.com/5670-mars-dirt-surprisingly-sticky.html

[djellison]

Never before has this effect been observed on a Mars rover

Very fine grained soil does that all the time. It's been seen on Mars rover wheels for 20 years.  This article has a captioned image of it on the wheels of MER-B and MSL.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40645-025-00725-3  ( specifically figure 4 - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40645-025-00725-3/figures/4 )


 'Wet' clay isn't possible on the Martian surface.   It would sublimate away in the heat of day and freeze solid any other time.  The 'liquid' corner of the phase diagram of water at Martian air pressure is miniscule.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_diagram#/media/File:Phase_diagram_of_water_simplified.svg

See...
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023JE007880 where you'll see data showing the ambient pressure hovers right around that triple point at Jezero.

The 'looks like wet soil/mud' phenomenon has plagued those observing rover ops for two decades.   The behavior of VERY fine grained, VERY dry fines is quite unintuitive.  I'd suggest playing around with a tray of cornflower to understand just how clingy and clumpy it can be. 

[Holger Isenberg]

specifically figure 4 - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40645-025-00725-3/figures/4 )

That's showing some nice fine dust adhesion effect I also listed. But I don't think those huge chunks seen now on the twice the diameter size wheels can be explained as fine dust. Especially if you also look at the other photos from the same day and a few later still showing also sticky remains inside.