Samples Collected From the Floor of Jezero Crater With the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover
Number of Authors: 682023 (English)In: Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets, ISSN 2169-9097, E-ISSN 2169-9100, Vol. 128, no 6, article id e2022JE007474Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The first samples collected by the Mars 2020 mission represent units exposed on the Jezero Crater floor, from the potentially oldest Séítah formation outcrops to the potentially youngest rocks of the heavily cratered Máaz formation. Surface investigations reveal landscape-to-microscopic textural, mineralogical, and geochemical evidence for igneous lithologies, some possibly emplaced as lava flows. The samples contain major rock-forming minerals such as pyroxene, olivine, and feldspar, accessory minerals including oxides and phosphates, and evidence for various degrees of aqueous activity in the form of water-soluble salt, carbonate, sulfate, iron oxide, and iron silicate minerals. Following sample return, the compositions and ages of these variably altered igneous rocks are expected to reveal the geophysical and geochemical nature of the planet's interior at the time of emplacement, characterize martian magmatism, and place timing constraints on geologic processes, both in Jezero Crater and more widely on Mars. Petrographic observations and geochemical analyses, coupled with geochronology of secondary minerals, can also reveal the timing of aqueous activity as well as constrain the chemical and physical conditions of the environments in which these minerals precipitated, and the nature and composition of organic compounds preserved in association with these phases. Returned samples from these units will help constrain the crater chronology of Mars and the global evolution of the planet's interior, for understanding the processes that formed Jezero Crater floor units, and for constraining the style and duration of aqueous activity in Jezero Crater, past habitability, and cycling of organic elements in Jezero Crater.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley and Sons Inc , 2023. Vol. 128, no 6, article id e2022JE007474
Keywords [en]
Jezero Crater, Mars 2020, Mars sample return, rock core
National Category
Geology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-65732DOI: 10.1029/2022JE007474Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85163289485OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-65732DiVA, id: diva2:1786259
Note
The authors thank editor Bradley Thomson and reviewers Nicole E. Moore, Jade Star Lackey, and Allan Treiman for their many constructive comments. We are grateful to the entire Mars 2020 team. The Mars 2020 mission and Return Sample Science Participating Scientist Program are supported by NASA Mars Exploration Program. K.H.‐L. acknowledges a UK Space Agency Aurora Research Fellowship (Grant ST/V00560X/1). M.‐P.Z. is supported by Grant PID2019‐104205GB‐C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. J.F.B. is supported by NASA/JPL, Grant 1511125. A.G.F is supported by European Research Council, Grant 818602; F.G. is supported by INTA internal project DAXE (SIGS22001) and Italian Space Agency (ASI) Grant ASI/INAF n. 2017‐48‐H‐0. C.D.K.H. and M.S. are supported by Canadian Space Agency Mars 2020 Participating Scientist Grants. S.S. is supported by Swedish National Space Agency (Contracts 137/19 and 2021‐00092). A.U. is supported by NASA Mars 2020 Participating Scientist program 80NSSC21K0330 (AU). S.V. is supported by NASA Mars 2020 Participating Scientist Program (Grant 80NSSC21K0328). A.J.W. is supported by NASA Mars 2020 Participating Scientist Program (Grant 80NSSC21K0332).
2023-08-082023-08-082023-08-08Bibliographically approved