(ORDO NEWS) — NASA‘s Perseveranse rover has embarked on a new science mission, collecting the first sample from a rock outcrop called Vereya.
The core, which was obtained by the rover, is the size of a piece of school chalk: 60 millimeters in length and 13 millimeters in diameter.
In total, the rover has already collected 19 samples and three control tubes to identify possible contaminants, and placed 10 tubes on the surface of Mars as a backup cache.
This was done as part of a campaign by NASA and ESA to return Martian rock samples to Earth, where they will be studied using powerful laboratory equipment.
The Bereya outcrop is located in the delta of the riverbed in the ancient crater Jezero, in which a lake existed during the early history of Mars.
Scientists believe that Bereya was formed from rock deposits that were carried by the flow of water. The rocks are rich in carbonates, making them a good target for finding fossilized life if it existed on Mars.
Because carbonates are formed from chemical interactions in liquid water, they can provide scientists with detailed information about past climate changes on the planet.
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