NASA’s Perseverance rover, higher often called Percy, was designed to discover the Jezero crater on Mars as a part of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. It efficiently landed on the Purple Planet on the 18th of February in 2021 and has been offering scientists with essential data ever since.Lately, the rover caught large scientific curiosity as a result of it noticed one thing actually thrilling and strange – a white, one-of-a-kind rock sitting on the floor of Mount Washburn, inside the large Jezero crater.Extra information: NASA NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been on Mars since February 2021, just lately discovered a one-of-a-kind rock referred to as Atoko PointShare iconImage credit: NASAShare iconImage credit: NASAShare iconImage credit: NASA Share iconImage credit: NASAThe pictures of the light-toned boulder with darkish speckles reached scientists on the twenty seventh of Might, 2024, the 1,162nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The 18-by-14-inch (45 by 35 centimeter) rock, as a consequence of its uniqueness, was named ‘Atoko Level’ as a reference to the jap Grand Canyon.The evaluation made by Perseverance’s SuperCam and Mastcam-Z confirmed that Atoko Level consists of such minerals as pyroxene and feldspar.“By way of the scale, form, and association of its mineral grains and crystals—and doubtlessly its chemical composition – Atoko Level is in a league of its personal,” NASA shared of their press launch.“The variety of textures and compositions at Mount Washburn was an thrilling discovery for the crew, as these rocks symbolize a seize bag of geologic items introduced down from the crater rim and doubtlessly past,” added Brad Garczynski from Western Washington College, the analysis crew’s co-leader.Whereas the rock is catching consideration with its look and chemical composition, the scientific crew can also be making an attempt to determine the place Atoko Level got here from, and plainly in the intervening time there are at the least two completely different hypotheses.One group of researchers are suggesting that Atoko Level was made in a subsurface physique of magma that’s probably uncovered now on the crater rim and the opposite a part of the crew believes that the rock was created far past the partitions of the 28-mile-wide Jezero crater and was transported there by the “swift Martian waters” eons in the past.“Both approach, the crew believes that whereas Atoko is the primary of its type they’ve seen, it gained’t be the final,” NASA mentioned.The weird rock was discovered on the floor of Mount Washburn, a hill inside Jezero CraterShare iconImage credit: NASAShare iconImage credit: NASAShare iconImage credit: NASAADVERTISEMENTShare iconImage credit: NASAThe fundamental purpose of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, in search of indicators of historical life and amassing samples of rock and regolith for attainable Earth return.NASA’s Perseverance rover is investigating Jezero crater – an enormous area of the Purple Planet the place the traditional setting might have created the proper situations for microbial life. Geared up with a brand new subsystem for amassing samples of the Martian rocks, Percy would possibly deliver attainable proof of previous life.Though Perseverance has an identical design to its predecessor rover, Curiosity, it was reasonably upgraded: it carries 7 main payload devices, 23 cameras (9 engineering, 7 science and seven entry, descent, touchdown), and a couple of microphones.Share iconImage credit: NASAShare iconImage credit: NASATwo science devices collocated on the rover’s robotic arm permit it to investigate the chemical, mineral, bodily, and natural traits of Martian rocks and decide one of the best areas to gather samples, whereas high-resolution imaging and three kinds of spectroscopy for characterizing rocks and soil from a distance assist Percy to find out which rock targets to discover up shut. The collected samples are later sealed into tubes and saved within the rover’s chassis to be retrieved by a future mission for in-depth evaluation on Earth.“The stomach of the rover homes all of the tools and provides wanted to gather samples. It incorporates a rotating drill carousel, which is a wheel that incorporates completely different sorts of drill bits,” NASA defined. “Whereas the rover’s massive arm reaches out and drills rock, the rover stomach is residence to a small robotic arm that works as a ‘lab assistant’ to the massive arm. The small arm picks up and strikes new pattern tubes to the drill, and transfers crammed pattern containers into an area the place they’re sealed and saved,” they added.The rover additionally carried the mini-helicopter referred to as Ingenuity, an experimental know-how testbed that made the primary powered plane flight on one other planet, but on the 18th of January, 2024, it made its 72nd and last flight and, because of the injury on touchdown to its rotor blades, needed to be retired by NASA. Evaluation by the rover’s SuperCam and Mastcam-Z devices point out Atoko Level consists of the minerals pyroxene and feldsparShare iconImage credit: ESAShare iconImage credit: SETI InstituteShare iconImage credit: NASAShare iconImage credit: NASAOver the years, 6 rovers have operated on Mars: Sojourner, Spirit and Alternative, Curiosity, and Perseverance (Percy), managed by the American NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Zhurong, managed by the China Nationwide Area Administration.Regardless of the technical variations, all of them have been centered on the Mars Exploration Program’s 4 fundamental long-term targets:to seek out out whether or not life ever was on Mars;characterize the local weather on the Purple Planet;characterize the geology of Mars;put together for human exploration.Though Perseverance was designed to final only a few years on Mars, very possible it’s going to outlive the predictions as a result of, as an illustration, its twin, Curiosity, continues to be going robust after virtually 11 years of roving.The primary purpose for its lengthy life could possibly be that each of those rovers are utilizing a nuclear energy supply as an alternative of photo voltaic panels that may cease working when lined by mud or when the solar is dimmed throughout mud storm season.But after the mission is accomplished, Percy gained’t be coming again to Earth, since to this point there is no such thing as a identified know-how to launch the rover again.Share iconImage credit: NASAShare iconImage credit: NASAShare iconImage credit: NASASince 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover has made exceptional discoveries concerning the Purple Planet’s floor, together with its volcanic historical past, local weather, and the position of water in Jezero’s Crater.Whereas the sooner rovers had been centered on geology and understanding the setting of Mars, Percy is in search of indicators of previous life and the current discovery of Atoko Level can positively present some clues.