Ammon News - NASA’s Perseverance rover has collected a sample from Mars that has textures “unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.”
Known as “Silver Mountain,” the rock core has been sealed into a tube so it can be analyzed in labs on Earth in the future.
Silver Mountain is the Martian rover’s 26th sample. Dozens of samples are being collected to better understand the planet’s geological history, its climate, and determine whether it ever hosted life.
Earlier this month, the space agency announced that the samples could be returned to Earth as soon as 2035 and as late as 2039. NASA is deliberating what method to use. It said that a selection would be announced as soon as next year.
“Pursuing two potential paths forward will ensure that NASA is able to bring these samples back from Mars with significant cost and schedule saving compared to the previous plan,” former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. Independent