NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has been collecting samples from the Red Planet’s surface. The rover has spotted many rocks over the course, with some ranging from downright odd to resembling living beings of the cretaceous era.
The rove has now spotted a rock that looks like a “Brachiosaurus”, a dinosaur that existed during the Late Jurassic, about 154–153 million years ago, in the North American region, reports CNET.
Resemblance with dinosaurs
Kevin Gill of the NASA-JPL took to Twitter to share an image of a rock spotted by the Perseverance rover on April 15. He compared the rock to a tiny brachiosaurus.
You must be thinking about why the rover is exploring rocks on Mars. NASA explains that during the surface operation, the rover has been assigned some objectives that include spotting rocks that were formed or altered by environments that could have supported microbial life on the Red Planet during its ancient days.
The rover also spots rocks capable of preserving biosignatures, chemical traces of ancient life. The rover drills samples from potential rocks and caches them on the surface of the planet.
Perseverance making history
Recently, the Perseverance Mars rover also registered its name in the history books. It converted carbon dioxide into oxygen on the Red Planet for the first time. It was done using a small scientific instrument that sucked up CO2 from Mars’ atmosphere and converted it into Oxygen.
This will come in handy in future Mars missions, where space travelers will not only generate oxygen but also produce rocket fuel for their journey back to Earth. The rover leveraged the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instrument for this experiment.
“This is a critical first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator, NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). “MOXIE has more work to do, but the results from this technology demonstration are full of promise as we move toward our goal of one-day seeing humans on Mars.”
MOXIE heats CO2 to about 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit and generates five grams of oxygen, enough for a person to breathe for 10 minutes. The instrument is capable of generating 10 grams of oxygen per hour, which will give astronauts enough breathable air.
