Astrobiological Potential of Rocks Acquired by the Perseverance Rover at a Sedimentary Fan Front in Jezero Crater, Mars - Archive ouverte HAL
Article Dans Une Revue AGU Advances Année : 2024

Astrobiological Potential of Rocks Acquired by the Perseverance Rover at a Sedimentary Fan Front in Jezero Crater, Mars

1 EAPS - Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences [MIT, Cambridge]
2 BGC - Berkeley Geochronology Center
3 RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
4 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University
5 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences [Pasadena]
6 JSC - NASA Johnson Space Center
7 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
8 LPI - Lunar and Planetary Institute [Houston]
9 Department of Geology and Geography [Morgantown]
10 Plancius Research LLC
11 UC - University of Cincinnati
12 Department of Geoscience [Las Vegas]
13 NHM - The Natural History Museum [London]
14 BiGeA - Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali
15 University of Alberta
16 JHU - Johns Hopkins University
17 Department of Geological Sciences [Boulder]
18 Framework
19 BMSIS - Blue Marble Space Institute of Science
20 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences [Knoxville]
21 CAB - Centro de Astrobiologia [Madrid]
22 Center for Space Sensors and Systems
23 SESE - ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration
24 IMPMC - Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie
25 UF - University of Florida [Gainesville]
26 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
27 Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington
28 DLR Institut für Optische Sensorsyteme
29 University of Winnipeg
30 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
31 LGL-TPE - Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon - Terre, Planètes, Environnement
32 QUT - Queensland University of Technology [Brisbane]
33 INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
34 Pôle Planétologie du LESIA
35 McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]
36 Department of Earth Science and Engineering [Imperial College London]
37 Department of Geosciences [Stony Brook]
38 DTU - Danmarks Tekniske Universitet = Technical University of Denmark
39 UVa - Universidad de Valladolid [Valladolid]
40 EAPS - Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences [West Lafayette]
41 Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory
42 Department of Astronomy, Cornell University
Sandra Siljeström
Justin I. Simon
Kathryn M. Stack
Adrian J. Brown
Chris D. K. Herd
Jeffrey R. Johnson
Michelle E. Minitti
M.‐p. Zorzano
Abigail C. Allwood
M. Cable
Fred Calef
E. Cloutis
B. A. Cohen
Alberto G. Fairén
Teresa Fornaro
T. Fouchet
F. Gomez Gomez
Kevin P. Hand
Justin Maki
Jorge I. Nuñez
James W. Rice
A. Steele
K. Uckert
Arya Udry
Amy Williams

Résumé

The Perseverance rover has collected seven oriented samples of sedimentary rocks, all likely older than the oldest signs of widespread life on Earth, at the exposed base of the western fan in Jezero crater, Mars. The samples include a sulfate‐ and clay‐bearing mudstone and sandstone, a fluvial sandstone from a stratigraphically low position at the fan front, and a carbonate‐bearing sandstone deposited above the sulfate‐bearing strata. All samples contain aqueously precipitated materials and most or all were aqueously deposited. Although the rover instruments have not confidently detected organic matter in the rocks from the fan front, the much more sensitive terrestrial instruments will still be able to search for remnants of prebiotic chemistries and past life, and study Mars's past habitability in the samples returned to Earth. The hydrated, sulfate‐bearing mudstone has the highest potential to preserve organic matter and biosignatures, whereas the carbonate‐bearing sandstones can be used to constrain when and for how long Jezero crater contained liquid water. Returned sample science analyses of sulfate, carbonate, clay, phosphate and igneous minerals as well as trace metals and volatiles that are present in the samples acquired at the fan front would provide transformative insights into past habitable environments on Mars, the evolution of its magnetic field, atmosphere and climate and the past and present cycling of atmospheric and crustal water, sulfur and carbon.
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Dates et versions

hal-04677968 , version 1 (26-08-2024)

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Tanja Bosak, David L. Shuster, Eva L. Scheller, Sandra Siljeström, M. J. Zawaski, et al.. Astrobiological Potential of Rocks Acquired by the Perseverance Rover at a Sedimentary Fan Front in Jezero Crater, Mars. AGU Advances, 2024, 5 (4), pp.e2024AV001241. ⟨10.1029/2024AV001241⟩. ⟨hal-04677968⟩
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