NASA's Perseverance rover has been exploring the Jezero Crater since it landed there in February, but now the rover has successfully taken its first two samples.
NASA's Perseverance rover has taken a second sample of Mars, and scientists are already suggesting it may reveal ancient life.
NASA's main goal is to discover any signs of ancient life once existing on the Red Planet, and the Perseverance rover is there to find it. To find signs of ancient life, Perseverance must take core samples from rocks, and from those samples, researchers will derive the history of the environment and whether or not it may have once had the right conditions for life.
According to Ken Farley of Caltech and a project scientist for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stated in a press release shared by NASA, "It looks like our first rocks reveal a potentially habitable sustained environment." NASA states that there were salt minerals found in the core samples and that these rock cores may have trapped tiny bubbles of ancient Martian water.
"The salt minerals in these first two rock cores may also have trapped tiny bubbles of ancient Martian water. If present, they could serve as microscopic time capsules, offering clues about the ancient climate and habitability of Mars. Salt minerals are also well-known on Earth for their ability to preserve signs of ancient life," stated NASA.