The Perseverance rover is currently on the surface of Mars, heading towards the Jezero crater. The site of an ancient river delta is one of the most exciting locations to be explored on Mars. A NASA scientist explained in a recent post how studying the delta could help understand the history of Mars, and even find evidence of life on the planet.
Adrian Brown, deputy program scientist at NASA, explains that the promise of the delta is that having water on the surface of a planet for a significant amount of time is both key to the development of life and a great way to learn about geological history. One can find more about the history of Mars in the layers of the delta, like a book with pages.
The river has done the job of sample collection for the rover, which is useful because it brings rocks and other samples from far across the region into one spot. Researchers estimate that the rocks in the delta come from an area nearly as wide as 30 miles across and could include samples that are even older than the crater itself.
There is a chance that we may find ancient life in the delta rocks.
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