291-1 Habitable environments and potential biosignatures revealed by the NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover mission

Session: Mineralogy in the Solar System

Presenting Author:

Adrian Broz

Authors:

Broz, Adrian P.¹, Horgan, Briony Heather Noelle², Kalucha, Hemani³, Hurowitz, Joel A.⁴, Klidaras, Athanasios⁵, Mandon, Lucia⁶, Connell, Stephanie Ann⁷, Dehouck, Erwin⁸, Johnson, Jeffrey Roy⁹, Wiens, Roger C¹⁰, Simon, Justin Ibrahim¹¹, Tice, Michael M.¹², Williams, Amy¹³, Farley, Kenneth A.¹⁴, Stack Morgan, Kathryn Marie¹⁵

(1) Purdue University/University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA, (2) Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, (3) NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, USA, (4) Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA, (5) Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, IN, USA, (6) University Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France, (7) Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA, (8) University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France, (9) Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, USA, (10) Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, IN, USA, (11) NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA, (12) Texas A&M University, Geology & Geophysics, College Station, TX, , (13) University of Florida, Gainsville, FL, USA, (14) California Institute of Technology, Altadena, CA, , (15) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, ,

Abstract:

The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover mission has been exploring the ancient (3-4-billion-year-old) terrains of Jezero crater since landing in February of 2021. The mineralogy of rocks and aqueously altered sediments discovered during Perseverance’s traverse inside of Jezero crater have revealed new information about the nature of habitable climates and the potential for ancient life to have once existed inside Jezero crater. This work summarizes the mineralogical and chemical properties of three notable discoveries by Perseverance. These first include the Fe/Mg sulfate-cemented sandstones and mudstones of the Jezero sedimentary fan front (Hogwallow Flats) that point towards a habitable lacustrine or floodplain environment with high biosignature preservation potential. Nearby, the rover also encountered light-toned, cobble-to boulder aluminum-rich float rocks that contain kaolinite or halloysite, marking the first time that a kaolin-group mineral has been encountered by a landed mission to Mars. On Earth, these aluminum-rich minerals are typically associated on Earth with deep rainfall-driven weathering at the surface, or alternatively, hot hydrothermal alteration in the subsurface. More recently in August-September of 2024, Perseverance explored the ancient river channel of Neretva Vallis and discovered mm-scale Fe-phosphate- Fe/Ni-sulfide nodules and reaction fronts residing in fine-grained, organic-matter-bearing mudstones lining the river channel. These features strongly resemble terrestrial “reduction spots” that form from microbial activity in buried soils and sediments, marking their occurrence as a potential biosignature on Mars. This talk will highlight these discoveries, the implications on our understanding of Mars’ mineralogic evolution, and the potential for Martian minerals to preserve evidence of abiotic-prebiotic chemistry or ancient microbial activity.

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