NASA confirms discovery of Mars sample unlike any it has found before

NASA has confirmed its Mars rover has discovered a Martian sample unlike any other the rover has found throughout its travels across the plains of the Red Planet.

The Mars rover named Perseverance is making its way out of the Jezero Crater, which it landed in with the now-deceased Mars helicopter in 2021. Perseverance has been exploring the Jezero Crater in search of evidence of ancient microbial life. Part of its mission is to collect samples of the Martian environment, which will eventually be sent back to Earth for scientific analysis. NASA recently announced Perseverance has stumbled across and now collected a sample that is unlike any other it has collected before.

According to the space agency, the new "one-of-a-kind treasure" is a 1.1-inch rock sample collected from an area called "Silver Mountain". NASA wrote on the official Perseverance X account the rock sample has "textures, unlike anything we've seen before." According to NASA, the rocks in the area Perseverance is exploring are of great scientific interest as they have the possibility of offering a peek into Mars' past. As for the exciting sample, and others like it in the area, researchers believe they have been pushed up from deep within the planet after an asteroid impact that occurred billions of years ago.

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26th collected rock sample

"After wrapping up at Mill Brook - including a ZCAM multispectral scan of "Berry Hill" - Perseverance took a 140-meter drive (about 459 feet) to "Blue Hill" at "Shallow Bay," a site of immense scientific interest. The rocks here are rich in low-calcium pyroxene (LCP), making them one of the most intriguing sample targets of the mission so far," writes NASA

Officials believe the rock sample could be part of an early Martian crust and "among the oldest rocks found anywhere in the solar system."