by No, this is not evidence of advanced (but careless) life in March.
On Monday (June 13), NASAs Endurance rover took a picture of a shiny silver object wedged between two rocks on the floor of the Jezero crater on the red planet, which the car the size of a car has been exploring since the touchdown in February 2021.
This space junk is not resident in March; Endurance pulled it off the ground, the rover’s drivers said.
Related: 12 amazing photos from the Perseverance rover’s 1st year on Mars
“My team has discovered something unexpected: It’s part of a thermal blanket that they think may have come from my descent phase, the rocket-propelled jet package that put me down on landing day back in 2021,” the members of the Perseverance team wrote via the rover’s Twitter account (opens in new tab) today (June 15).
“The shiny piece of foil is part of a thermal blanket – a material used to control temperatures. It’s a surprise to find this here: My descent stage crashed about 2 km [1.2 miles] gone. Did this piece land after that, or was it blown here by the wind? ” they added another tweet (opens in new tab)which contained a close-up of the piece of carpet.
This is not the first time we have looked at any of the equipment that helped Perseverance hit the red dirt safely. April 19 is NASA’s little one Ingenuity helicopter flew over the rover’s rear shell and parachute, Take amazing photos from a variety of angles.
Aerial imagery helps engineers assess the performance and condition of the back shell and shaft, which could inform the design of future Mars missions, NASA officials have said.
The shiny piece of foil is part of a thermal blanket – a material used to control temperatures. It is a surprise to find this here: My descent stage crashed about 2 km away. Landed this piece here after that, or was it blown here by the wind? pic.twitter.com/uVx3VdYfi8June 15, 2022
Perseverance is looking for signs of the ancients March life and collect samples for future return to Earth. Billions of years ago, Jezero hosted a lake and a river delta and is therefore a great place to do such work, members of the mission team have said.
The rover has taken many interesting photos that do not include clippings of its own protective equipment. This weekend, for example, Perseverance snapped one memorable shot from Jezero’s delta region which contained a balancing boulder and a stone that looked striking like a snake’s head with its mouth open.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out there (opens in new tab)“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the pursuit of alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
