The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has recently unveiled detailed plans for a new mission to Mars, targeting the ancient lowland region nestled within the expansive Jezero Crater.
This circular expanse, spanning 45 kilometers in diameter, boasts evidence of a once-stunning landscape featuring deep water lakes and optimal conditions for life.
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Jezero Crater seen from afar. This crater has a diameter of up to 45 km – Photo: NASA
Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s Associate Administrator, revealed that the Jezero Crater will also serve as the designated landing site for the $2.5 billion Mars 2020 rover, a more advanced robotic vehicle compared to its predecessors.
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Photo: NASA
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A corner of Jezero Crater still bears traces of an ancient river – Photo: NASA
“Jezero Crater is geologically rich, 3.6 billion years old, and has the potential to answer critical questions about planetary evolution and astrobiology. Sampling from this area could reshape our understanding of Mars and its potential for harboring life,” Zurbuchen remarked.
Scientists speculate that life in the form of microorganisms may have thrived in the Jezero Crater around 3.5-3.9 billion years ago, a timeframe that could be nearly concurrent or slightly subsequent to Earth’s emergence of life.
The earliest ancient carbon signatures indicating life’s potential on Earth date back around 4.1 billion years, though the oldest discovered microorganisms are approximately 3.4 billion years old.
Before Mars transformed into a arid environment, Jezero was a vast expanse of wetlands with rivers flowing in, and it possessed a lake with depths of up to 500 meters.
Just a few days earlier, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia’s Roscosmos announced a collaborative mission named ExoMars 2020, targeting another legendary Martian region known as Oxia Planum. Their data suggests that this locale could have supported extraterrestrial life or at least held such potential in the past.