NASA found 'treasure' right before losing the ship hunting extraterrestrial life

On the planet that just became the "grave" of the life-hunting ship Ingenuity, its companion made a breakthrough discovery at a depth of 20m .

The new "treasure" was found by a research team from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA - USA) among the huge data set collected by NASA's life-hunting spacecraft Perseverance before a serious incident occurred with its Ingenuity companion.

According to Space.com, using the RIMFAX device mounted on it, Perseverance "looked" deep into the deep sediment layers below Jezero Crater, a giant crater on the surface of Mars.

Jezero Crater was filled with water and life in the past more than 3 billion years ago - (Graphic image: NASA).

Jezero Crater has long been believed by NASA to be the remains of an ancient lake, connected to a complex network of surrounding rivers.

RIMFAX sent radar waves downward, then measured the reflected pulses from depths up to 20 m below the surface to understand the structures below.

This data confirmed that water-deposited sediment once filled Jezero Crater. And when that happened, this place was filled with life.

This means sediment samples from this area may contain traces of the red planet's past life - a "treasure" that NASA has spent billions of dollars searching for.

UCLA scientists have shown two separate periods of deposition, repeated periodically, causing the sediment layers to look like regular cake layers. It's an entirely familiar sight, having been observed on Earth, where sediment deposits vary depending on the season.

It was the seasonal fluctuations of ancient lake levels on Mars that helped sediment over time form a vast plain, which Perseverance passed through from May to December 2022.

This discovery, just published in the scientific journal Science Advances , also brings great news, because Perseverance is designed to collect and analyze samples.

This robot also left behind tubes containing samples that future NASA missions will collect and bring back to Earth, where conditions for more detailed analysis will be available.

Perseverance - a rover-like robotic lander - and its companion, the Ingenuity robot helicopter, landed on Mars in February 2021, with the mission of searching for evidence of life.

Ingenuity plays a low-altitude aerial reconnaissance role, to help localize areas that Perseverance - slower but with more "weapons" - will survey in detail.

Recently, on January 25, the Ingenuity mission ended, after this small helicopter suffered a broken rotor during its 72nd flight.

Ingenuity remains an incredibly successful mission, considering it was only designed for a 30-day mission. However, it has exceeded expectations when accompanying Perseverance for the past 3 years.

Perseverance itself only has a main mission of about 2 Earth years, but so far it has worked perfectly well.