Mysterious rocks painted violet have been found everywhere on Mars

Red may be the dominant color associated with the red planet, but it’s purple. determination Continue to find Mars. Violet painted rocks to be exact. They are everywhere.

The brave Mars rover has found these purple rocks at nearly every site explored on the Jezero Crater so far, from large boulders to small pebbles, but NASA scientists aren’t sure what this purple coating is or how it forms.

“I don’t have a really good answer for you,” said geologist Anne Olilla. preliminary analysis From the mysterious purple drawing at the recent American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference National Geography.

Purple appears as a thin, smooth coating on some rocks and ink-like spots on others. Deciphering its chemical composition could provide insight into the ancient Martian environment.

This isn’t really the first time for purple rocks – or even green stonesBy the way – they were found on Mars. Curiosity discovered some near the base of Mount Sharp in 2016. At that time, NASA noticed The contrast of colors in the Martian rocks indicates a diversity in composition, and purple pebbles were found where the Curiosity Chemical and Mineral Tool (CheMin) discovered hematite, iron oxide crystal.

Wind-borne sand and sand as Curiosity also discovered helped keep the rocks free of dust, which can obscure the color of the rocks.

According to another website, the purple spots detected by Perseverance were also found in less dusty areas. preliminary analysis It was presented at the AGU conference, this time by a team led by Bradley Garcinsky of Purdue University, who studies drawing using images captured with continuous “eye” cameras, Mastcam-Z. Their findings suggest that they may also contain types of iron oxide.

However, Garczynski told NatGeo we’ve never seen this kind of purple rock paint before, certainly not in the frequency that perseverance seems to find.

Team Olila is using the Perseverances Supercam – who can Hit the laser on the rocks Vaporization and the study of the properties of rocks – the study of coatings. The first results seem to show that the purple layer is softer and chemically distinct from the rock layer below, possibly rich in hydrogen and magnesium.

Hydrogen and iron oxide indicate that water played a role in the formation of the purple spots. Perseverance was exploring the Jezero Crater, a meteorite once upon a time hosted an ancient lakeThere is plenty of evidence that Mars once harbored water and even that it did wet planet. However, the path that Percy took in finding these purple rocks does not follow any lake sediments, but rather rocks formed from cooled magma. So how these purple-colored rocks got to their location and how and when they came into contact with water remains a mystery.

Scientists are studying whether the rocky linings of Mars could help Preserving evidence of ancient microbial life Prevent intense sunlight from degrading organic matter. So, create this new puzzle to help us discover the answer to the age-old question of whether or not there is life on Mars.