NASA’s next Mars rover will land in Jezero crater, which once hosted a lake and a river delta

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/nasas-next-mars-rover-could-explore-former-mineral-springs-and-fossil-river-delta

Source:  By Paul Voosen, Science Magazine.

Excerpt: Update: NASA today announced the destination for its next Mars rover, due for launch in 2020. The agency said it would send the rover to the 50-kilometer-wide Jezero crater, which billions of years ago harbored a lake that half filled the 500-meter-deep basin. The crater also contains within its rim a fossilized river delta, the sediments from a river that spilled into the crater—a promising place to search for evidence of past life. [see photo in article; https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/styles/inline__699w__no_aspect/public/ca_1012NID_Delta_Jezer_Crater_online.jpg?itok=0xVirXxA] “Getting samples from this unique area will revolutionize how we think about Mars and its ability to harbor life,”  Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington, D.C., said in a press conference. ...The 2020 rover will be tasked with gathering and caching rock and soil samples for eventual return to Earth by subsequent missions....

Popular posts from this blog

Stellar remains of famed 1987 supernova found at last

Planets around dead stars offer glimpse of the Solar System’s future—after the Sun swallows us up

The Smallest Moon of Mars May Not Be What It Seemed