NASA scientists reported that the Perseverance rover detected a mysterious purple coating on the rocks on the surface of Mars. Various geological points analyzed by the robot showed the presence of the new hue.
According to the experts, it is a very fine light layer that is present in some of the rocks as stains similar to paint.
The rocks with the purple coating were found by the robot in the Jezero Crater, an area that was destroyed by a meteorite several million years ago and where a lake used to be.
“These purple spots in particular we have not seen in missions of previous rover,” says Bradley Garczynski of Purdue University.
Ann Ollila, a geochemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, points out that they have also found other rocks that look like as if they had been frozen in magenta ice.
When asked about the reason for the coloration of the stones, Ollila replies that they are still investigating because they do not know yet what is the reason for the presence of this substance that covers both large stones and small pebbles.
However, the first studies show that the purple spots contain iron oxide enriched with hydrogen os and, occasionally, magnesium. The presence of these two components suggests that water was part of the creation of the spots detected by the robot.
“There is a lot to look forward to as we continue to do analyses,” says Nina Lanza, who is the leader of the Space Exploration team and works alongside Ollila on the purple layer study.
It is expected that the studies of this substance carried out by scientists using the Perseverance rover will allow us to discover if life inhabited Mars. Experts are optimistic and believe that studying the crust of Mars can help understand the chemical and mineral composition of the planet to know how it has evolved over time.
This would allow scientists to model what atmospheric conditions were like millions of years ago.