A small piece of space debris from basalt, the size of a 10-pence coin, will be launched on a US robotic probe on Thursday, July 30, toward the Red Planet on a seven-month trip to its original world.
Tune in all week on https://t.co/8DEZ9AEGZ9 as we prepare for @NASAPersevere's launch to Mars! 🚀Monday features the pre-launch news conference, and the engineering & science briefing. Schedule: https://t.co/dUHwa6ad0rTag questions for our experts with #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/QQ4KnJbV1Z— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) July 27, 2020
As I get ready to launch to Mars in 4️⃣ days, take a look at some of the tools I’m taking to help me search for signs of ancient life. #CountdownToMars https://t.co/LI4hIkCwXf pic.twitter.com/J4AOy5Wdde— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) July 26, 2020
This exceptional trip will be a key part of NASA's upcoming trip to Mars 2020. Space engineers say the rock, donated by the Natural History Museum in London, will be used to calibrate the detectors aboard the "Perciferans" spacecraft after landing and begin its search for signs of past life. On this planet.
Professor Caroline Smith, curator of meteorites at the Natural History Museum, said that there is no better way than studying the rocks of the Red Planet by using the piece of rock that reached Earth from the same planet in the distant past.
Smith, who is also a member of the Mars 2020 science team, added that scientists were confident that the rock with which they returned to Mars had originated on this planet. She noted: "There were small bubbles of gases trapped inside this meteorite that had the same composition as the atmosphere of Mars, so we know that the rock came from there."
It is believed that the Martian meteorite was created when an asteroid or a comet collided with the Red Planet some 600,000 years ago to 700,000 years ago, causing debris to spread to space.
One of the pieces of rubble invaded the solar system and eventually crashed on Earth. The discovery of this meteorite, now known as SAU 008, occurred in Amman in 1999 and has been under the auspices of the Natural History Museum since then.
Among the instruments equipped with the Perseverance rover is a high-precision laser called Sherloc, which will be used to decipher the chemical composition of rocks and determine whether they can contain organic matter that indicates life, or is still present on Mars.
The purpose of including a piece of the SAU 008 meteorite is to ensure that this is accomplished with the utmost accuracy.
"The piece of rock we send is specifically chosen because it is the right material in chemistry, but it is also a very strong rock. Some Martian meteorites are very fragile. This meteor is as strong as old shoes," Smith said.
Once the Perseverance probe has selected the most promising rock to be found on Mars, it will empty it into bunkers on the surface of the Red Planet. These samples will then be recovered by subsequent robotic probe missions, and sent to Earth for analysis.
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