Latest news with #JezeroCrater
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Volcano Found Hiding 'In Plain Sight' Right Next to NASA Mars Rover
Sometimes, it's really hard to see the volcanoes for the rocks, especially if you're just a one-ton rover all alone in a remote crater on Mars. Nevertheless, a bump on the rim of Jezero Crater is indeed a volcano, scientists have ruled – and the finding, thanks to NASA's Perseverance rover, has really exciting implications. "Volcanism on Mars is intriguing for a number of reasons – from the implications it has on habitability, to better constraining the geologic history," says planetary scientist James Wray from the Georgia Institute of Technology. "Jezero Crater is one of the best studied sites on Mars. If we are just now identifying a volcano here, imagine how many more could be on Mars. Volcanoes may be even more widespread across Mars than we thought." Wray noticed the mountain, called Jezero Mons, back in 2007, but there wasn't enough evidence to support the interpretation that it was a volcano. Then Perseverance started finding volcanic rocks on the crater floor. Suspicions grew that Jezero Mons may have burst upward from Mars' molten interior. To confirm speculations, a team led by planetary scientist Sara Cuevas-Quiñones of Georgia Tech decided to conduct a thorough investigation, looking for known characteristics of volcanoes here on Earth. "We used data from the Mars Odyssey Orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, and Perseverance Rover, all in combination to puzzle this out," Wray explains. Their verdict? Jezero Mons is volcanic. It even has a volcanic crater. It's not active now, and likely hasn't been for a very long time, but this identification will make Perseverance's findings easier to interpret. There's another interesting takeaway: Jezero Crater was once a lake. If it was sitting right next to a steaming pile of active volcano, the conditions may have been warm enough in the lake for life. "The coalescence of these two types of systems makes Jezero more interesting than ever," Wray says. "We have samples of incredible sedimentary rocks that could be from a habitable region alongside igneous rocks with important scientific value." The findings are published in Communications Earth & Environment. NASA Satellite Glimpses Giant Volcano Peeking Above The Clouds of Mars The Universe's Missing Black Holes May Have Been Located Mysteriously Magnetic Moon Rocks Might Have an Explosive Origin Story
Gizmodo
12-06-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
Astronomers Find Hidden Volcano on Mars
Mars's marred surface consists of craters, canyons, and mysterious formations that hint at a complex geological past. Scientists recently studied a tantalizing feature that could shed light on the planet's elusive history. A mountain perched on the rim of Mars' Jezero Crater may actually be a volcano hiding in plain sight, according to a new study. This peak, called Jezero Mons, could offer new insight into the Red Planet's geologic history and the potential for ancient Martian life, the researchers say. The findings, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment in May, validate long-held suspicions that Jezero Mons is volcanic. Using data from three Mars orbiters and NASA's Perseverance rover, researchers found striking similarities between this mountain and explosive volcanoes previously identified on Mars and Earth. 'Jezero Crater is one of the best studied sites on Mars. If we are just now identifying a volcano here, imagine how many more could be on Mars,' said corresponding author James Wray, a professor of astrogeology and remote sensing at Georgia Tech, in a university statement. 'Volcanoes may be even more widespread across Mars than we thought.' Wray has had a hunch that Jezero Mons is a volcano ever since he first laid eyes on it in 2007. 'I was looking at low-resolution photos of the area and noticed a mountain on the crater's rim,' he recalled in the statement. 'To me, it looked like a volcano, but it was difficult to get additional images.' At the time, scientists had only recently discovered the Jezero crater. Once scientists determined that it was likely an ancient lake bed, imaging efforts focused on its water history on the side opposite Jezero Mons. Then, shortly after NASA's Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater in 2021, there was a break in the case. This rover gathers samples from the Martian surface to aid the search for past life, investigate the planet's climate and geology, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. Before long, data from Perseverance showed that the crater's floor was not sedimentary, as one would expect from a previously-flooded area. It was actually made of volcanic rock. Wray wondered if this igneous rock could have come from Jezero Mons. He teamed up with lead author Sara Cuevas-Quiñones—a graduate student at Brown University who was working with Wray as part of a summer undergraduate research program at the time—to try to answer this question. Wray, Cuevas-Quiñones, and their colleagues used a combination of data from the Mars Odyssey Orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, and the Perseverance rover to 'puzzle this out,' Wray said. This wealth of data allowed the researchers to gain a deeper understanding of Jezero Mons' characteristics and compare it to other known volcanoes. They found that the size and shape of this peak is similar to Martian volcanoes such as Zephyria and Apollinarus Tholi, as well as Mount Sidley in Antarctica. What's more, the researchers determined that the surface of Jezero Mons lacks impact craters and does not retain heat well—two signs that it may be covered in volcanic ash. Parts of the peak's northwestern flank also resembled edges of past lava flows that appear to reach the crater floor, which could explain why Perseverance found igneous rock there. While this doesn't definitively prove that Jezero Mons is a volcano, it's some of the strongest evidence experts have so far. The findings mark an intriguing development in the search for life in Jezero Crater. A volcano located so close to this ancient lake might have generated hydrothermal activity—a source of energy that could have sustained past life. Now, the researchers await the return of Perseverance's samples. Radioisotope dating can determine the precise age of the igneous rocks this rover collected, which could then be used to more accurately estimate Jezero Crater's age, according to the researchers. This would offer valuable insights into the geological history of the Red Planet. Currently, NASA and its international partners have no solid plan to get this collection of rocks and dust back to Earth, but the agency is reviewing two Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission strategies with a goal of confirming the program in 2026. President Donald Trump's 2026 budget proposal, however, threatens to derail this program. If passed by Congress, the budget would terminate the MSR mission on the grounds that it is 'grossly over budget' and its goals can be achieved by human missions to Mars. Wray is hopeful that he will get his hands on Perseverance's finds one way or another. 'If these samples are returned to Earth, we can do incredible, groundbreaking science with them,' he said.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Haunting Image Shows The Moon Deimos From The Surface of Mars
There's not much hustle and bustle on Mars. The red planet is inhabited by no-one that we know of, except the robotic rovers toiling away to excavate its secrets. The only sound you'd hear is the whispering of the wind. There are no crowds, not much in the way of turmoil (unless you happen to get caught in one of Mars's wild, global sandstorms). Nevertheless, a new image taken by Perseverance from its lonely vantage point in the Jezero Crater seems to convey the serenity possible on Mars like no other. It was taken in the liminal pre-dawn darkness, at 4:27 am local time on 1 March 2025. The rover aimed its left Navcam above the horizon, and for a total exposure time of 52 seconds, stared at the sky – specifically, Deimos, the smaller and more distant of the two Martian moons. At just 16 kilometers (10 miles) across, and orbiting at an average distance of around 20,000 kilometers from the Martian surface, Deimos is quite small when viewed from Perseverance's perspective. It looks like a bright star in the sky. Mars has two moons; the other is Phobos. They were named for the sons of god of war Ares, the Greek counterpart for the Roman god Mars; their names mean fear (Phobos) and dread (Deimos). There are lots of mysteries about these little potato-moons. Scientists want to know where they came from, and where they are going. Simulations suggest that Phobos, which orbits Mars closer than any other moon in the Solar System, and whose orbit is shrinking, will one day be torn asunder by the gravity of Mars and become a faint ring around its equator. Deimos, at a much safer distance, is likely to escape this carnage; its fate, however, is not clear. Observations such as this haunting image captured by a lonely robot on the Martian surface are the tiny puzzle pieces scientists use to conduct their painstaking investigations thereon. Stunning Images Reveal The Sun's Surface in Unprecedented Detail The Universe's Most Powerful Cosmic Rays May Finally Be Explained China's Tianwen-2 Launches to Grab First 'Living Fossil' Asteroid Samples
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Listen to the eerie sounds of Mars recorded by a NASA rover
A NASA rover ambling over the red desert planet for the past four years has been recording audio of Mars. In this alien world 156 million miles away in space, even the everyday whispers of wind and mechanical parts are exotic to human ears. Scientists say that's because the Martian atmosphere is about 1 percent as dense as Earth's, which alters the volume, speed, and characteristics of sound. How to describe what Perseverance has heard at Jezero crater? Well, it doesn't not sound like the eerie ambient noise of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, but you can listen for yourself. Like an aspiring DJ or singer-songwriter, Perseverance has a Soundcloud account, where people can experience the latest Martian tracks. NASA shared this week some of the strange audio the rover has captured. You can find a sampling further down in this story. SEE ALSO: A NASA Mars rover looked up at a moody sky. What it saw wasn't a star. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech illustration When the rover touched down on Mars in 2021, it didn't just bring cameras, drills, and tubes for rock samples. It also carried two microphones — nothing special, just a couple of off-the-shelf devices anyone could buy online. The only modification NASA made was to attach little grids at the end of the mics to protect them from Martian dust. One of the microphones, mounted on the rover's head, is known as the SuperCam and has recorded most of the audio; another is attached to the body. What they've picked up is changing the way scientists think about the Red Planet. This is the first time humanity has ever been able to listen to the din of another world. "We've all seen these beautiful images that we get from Mars," said Nina Lanza, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, in a NASA video, "but having sound to be able to add to those images, it makes me feel like I'm almost right there on the surface." NASA shared Martian audio in the above post on X. Researchers published the first study of acoustics on Mars in the journal Nature, based on Perseverance's recordings, in 2022. Apparently, the Red Planet is a much quieter place than originally thought, and not just because it's unpopulated. It's so silent, in fact, there was a time the rover team believed the mics had stopped working. But Perseverance just wasn't getting much material from its surroundings. That's largely due to Mars' low-atmospheric pressure, though the pressure can vary with the seasons. The team studying these sounds found that Mars' thin air, composed mostly of carbon dioxide, makes sound waves behave differently. On Earth, sound travels at roughly 767 mph. On Mars, deeper pitches move at about 537 mph, with higher ones traveling a bit faster, at 559 mph. The thin atmosphere also causes sound to drop off quickly. A sound that could be heard from 200 feet away on Earth falls silent after 30 feet on Mars. Higher-pitched tones have an even shorter range. The microphones mounted to Perseverance are off-the-shelf devices anyone could buy off the internet. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech "Sounds on Earth have very rich harmonics. You can hear multiple frequencies. It gets a really nice depth to the sound," said Justin Maki, a NASA scientist, in a video. "On Mars, the atmosphere attenuates a lot of those higher frequencies. So you tend to hear the lower frequencies, and it's a much more isolated sound, a little more muted than the sounds we hear on Earth." With this data, scientists have learned that some of their earlier models for how they thought sound should move on Mars missed the mark. "The Martian atmosphere can propagate sound a lot further than we thought it could," Lanza said. Translation: The Red Planet can literally carry a tune.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Perseverance rover rolls onto 'Crocodile' plateau on Mars to hunt for super-old rocks
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NASA's Perseverance rover has made to a new region on Mars, which may contain some of the Red Planet's oldest and most interesting rocks. Perseverance landed inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater in February 2021, on a mission to search for past signs of Mars life and collect dozens of samples for future return to Earth. The car-sized rover has covered a lot of ground in the past four-plus years, and it has now reached yet another new spot — a plateau of rocky outcrops that the mission team named Krokodillen, after a mountain ridge on Prins Karls Forland island in Norway. (Krokodillen means "crocodile" in Norwegian.) Krokodillen, which covers about 73 acres (30 hectares), is a boundary of sorts between the ancient rocks of Jezero's rim and the plains beyond. Earlier work suggest that it harbors clay minerals, which form in the presence of liquid water. If Perseverance finds more such minerals throughout Krokodillen, it would suggest that the area may have been habitable long ago — an intriguing thought, given the age of the rocks. "The Krokodillen rocks formed before Jezero Crater was created, during Mars' earliest geologic period, the Noachian, and are among the oldest rocks on Mars," Ken Farley, deputy project scientist for Perseverance from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in a statement on May 19. "If we find a potential biosignature here, it would most likely be from an entirely different and much earlier epoch of Mars evolution than the one we found last year in the crater with 'Cheyava Falls,'" Farley added. Cheyava Falls is an arrowhead-shaped rock that Perseverance studied in 2024. The rover found chemical signatures and structures that are consistent with the activity of ancient microbial life. But such features may also have been produced by geological processes, so they remain potential rather than definitive biosignatures. Related: Scientists find hint of hidden liquid water ocean deep below Mars' surface Indeed, confirming the presence of current or past life on Mars may be too tall a task for Perseverance, given its limited scientific payload. That's why the rover is collecting samples that can be returned to Earth for study in well-equipped labs around the globe. (The future of Mars sample return is currently in doubt, however; the Trump administration's 2026 budget request would cancel the current plan to bring Perseverance's collected material home.) RELATED STORIES —NASA Mars satellite uncovers markings 'like paint dripping down a wall' on Martian surface —NASA rover discovers out-of-place 'Skull' on Mars, and scientists are baffled —Lights on Mars! NASA rover photographs visible auroras on Red Planet for the first time And speaking of sampling: The Perseverance team is implementing a new strategy going forward, according to the Monday statement. The rover will now leave some of its newly filled tubes unsealed, so it can dump out collected samples in favor of potentially more exciting ones if need be. The team is taking this tack because Perseverance is getting low on unsealed tubes and still has a lot of intriguing ground to cover. The rover carries 43 tubes, 38 of which are for collecting samples. (The other five are "witness" tubes that are designed to help the mission team determine if any materials in the collected samples are contaminants from Earth.) Perseverance has filled all but seven of its sample tubes at this point, according to Perseverance acting project scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "We have been exploring Mars for over four years, and every single filled sample tube we have on board has its own unique and compelling story to tell," she said in the same statement. "This strategy allows us maximum flexibility as we continue our collection of diverse and compelling rock samples." This article was originally published on
