NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

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On the plains of Jezero, the secrets of Mars' past await us! Follow for the latest news, updates, pretty pics, and community discussion on NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's most ambitious mission to Mars!

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Quartz discovered for the first time on Mars by the Perseverance rover, attesting to ancient water circulation on the Red Planet (www.irap.omp.eu)

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IRAP News release dated 4 March 2025

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago

These rocks therefore bear witness to very ancient water circulation on Mars, and are interesting from an exobiological point of view. Siliceous rocks, and opal in particular, have a remarkable capacity to preserve traces of life, whether morphological or molecular. If Perseverance succeeds in sampling this type of rock, it will be a prime target for the search for signatures of life once brought back to Earth.