First images from Perseverance rover show existence of ancient river delta on Mars

NASA's Perseverance rover has sent back its first images of a 3.7-billion-year-old ancient river delta. This new find will guide scientists in their search for evidence of ancient life. NASA's Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero crater on February 18 this year.

The study published in Science analysed high-resolution images captured by the Perseverance rover of the cliffs that were once the banks of the delta. The images reveal the watery life cycle of the now dried-out lake at Jezero Crater. The pictures sent by Perseverance also provide insight into where the rover could best hunt for samples that may contain signs of past life.

The findings could help Perseverance achieve its scientific missions of finding signs of bygone life and collecting samples for future return to Earth. 

Billions of years ago Mars had an atmosphere thick enough to support water flowing across its surface. The river flows carried sand and gravel from the surrounding highlands towards Jezero's fan-shaped river delta. The lake in the crater, Lake Jezero could have been up to 40km wide and tens of metres deep, scientists believe.

"These results have an impact on the strategy for the selection of rocks for sampling. The finest grained material at the bottom of the delta probably contains our best bet for finding evidence of organics and biosignatures, and the boulders at the top will enable us to sample old pieces of crustal rocks. Both are main objectives for sampling and caching rocks before the Mars Sample Return - a future mission to bring these samples back to Earth," co-lead author on the paper Professor Sanjeev Gupta, of Imperial College London’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said.