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

Abstract 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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Publication Details

Journal
AGU Advances
Published
2024-08-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2024av001241
Citations
29
Primary Topic
Planetary Science and Exploration
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
9.61

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article

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

E. A. Cloutis, F. J. Calef, B. A. Cohen, Eva L. Scheller et al.
29 citations
AGU Advances
Planetary Science and Exploration
9.61
article

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

E. A. Cloutis, F. J. Calef, B. A. Cohen, Eva L. Scheller, M. E. Minitti, Jorge I. Núñez, Gwénaël Caravaca, E. Dehouck, Elias N. Mansbach, Alberto González Fairén, Mike Zawaski, David L. Shuster, A. J. Brown, Lucia Mandon, David Flannery, Andrew D. Czaja, Clément Royer, Kyle Uckert, L. E. Mayhew, Tanja Bosak, Denise K. Buckner, Kenneth A. Farley, David C. Catling, J. N. Maki, Abigail C. Allwood, K. P. Hand, A. Steele, Sandra Siljeström, Felipe Gómez, Kathleen C. Benison, A. H. Treiman, Kenneth H. Williford, Elise Clavé, J. W. Rice, Sylvain Bernard, Olivier Beyssac, Karim Benzerara, Mark A. Sephton, Elisabeth M. Hausrath, J. A. Hurowitz, Thierry Fouchet, Erin Gibbons, David A. K. Pedersen, Arya Udry, Teresa Fornaro, S. Maurice, J. R. Johnson, C. D. K. Herd, María‐Paz Zorzano, J. F. Bell, Nicolas Randazzo, R. C. Wiens, Amy J. Williams, H. E. F. Amundsen, Keyron Hickman‐Lewis, O. Forni, Justin I. Simon, Kathryn M. Stack, Brittan Wogsland, A. Cousin, Morgan Leigh Cable, H. Kalucha, Sanjeev Gupta, Christian Tate, Sunanda Sharma, G. Lopes‐Reyes, B. P. Weiss
article en
29 citations

Abstract

Abstract 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.

AGU AdvancesVol. 5(4)
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR), Universidad de Valladolid (ES), West Virginia University (US), California Institute of Technology (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Planetary Science Institute (US), Goddard Space Flight Center (US), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US), Natural History Museum (GB), University of Nevada, Las Vegas (US), Johns Hopkins University (US), University of Alberta (CA), Queensland University of Technology (AU), Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées (FR), University of Oslo (NO), University of Colorado Boulder (US), Carnegie Institution for Science (US), University of Washington (US), Université Paris Cité (FR), Cornell University (US), Purdue University West Lafayette (US), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR), Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory (IT), Observatoire de Paris (FR), RISE Research Institutes of Sweden (SE), Knoxville College (US), Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (US), University of Florida (US), Sorbonne Université (FR), Morgantown High School (US), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR), Laboratoire d’études spatiales et d’instrumentation en astrophysique (FR), Centro de Astrobiología (ES), Blue Marble Space (US), Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie (FR), Johnson Space Center (US), Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (US), Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon : Terre, Planètes et Environnement (FR), Earth and Space Research (US), Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (FR), Earth and Planets Laboratory, Imperial College London (GB), McGill University (CA), Arizona State University (US), Lunar and Planetary Institute (US), Stony Brook University (US), University of Cincinnati (US), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US), The University of Winnipeg (CA), National Institute for Astrophysics (IT), Texas A&M University (US), University of Bologna (IT), University of California, Berkeley (US), Technical University of Denmark (DK)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, California Institute of Technology, Adolph C. and Mary Sprague Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California Berkeley, Swedish National Space Agency, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Canadian Space Agency, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Agencia Estatal de Investigación
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Planetary Science and Exploration
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