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  • Presentation | P11H: The Emergence of Life as a Planetary Process I Poster
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  • [ONLINE] P11H-VR8882: Serpentine and other Astrobiologically Relevant Materials Explored Recently by SuperCam on the Perseverance Rover
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Author(s):
Roger Wiens, Purdue University (First Author, Presenting Author)
Cathy Quantin Nataf, LGLTPE Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon : Terre, Planètes et Environnement
Jade Comellas, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Henry Manelski, Purdue University
Agnes Cousin, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP)
Lisa Mayhew, University of Colorado
Justin Simon, NASA Johnson Space Center
Tanja Bosak, MIT, Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Pierre Beck, University Joseph Fourier Grenoble
Allison Zastrow, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Erwin Dehouck, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1
Jose Manrique, University of Valladolid
Guillermo Lopez-Reyes, Universidad de Valladolid
Shiv Sharma, Univ Hawaii
Stephanie Connell, Purdue University
Elise Clave, DLR-OS Berlin
Jeremie Lasue, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP)
Candice Bedford, Purdue University
Joel Hurowitz, Stony Brook University
Morgan Cable, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Adrian Broz, Purdue University
Hemani Kalucha, California Institute of Technology
Briony Horgan, Purdue University
Kevin Hand, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Kyle Uckert, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Nicolas Randazzo, University of Alberta
Kathryn Stack, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology


Reaction of the mineral olivine with water releases hydrogen which can facilitate oxidation-reduction reactions, providing an energy source for microbes. The reaction is called serpentinization, as it produces the mineral serpentine. The SuperCam instrument on the Perseverance rover detects serpentine by a combination of laser and imaging techniques. About 1400 Mars days into the mission, SuperCam observed infrared light patterns indicating serpentine, so the rover made an abrasion patch for further study, and collected a sample for possible return to Earth. The abrasion patch appears light green (accompanying image), characteristic of serpentine. It is located on a house-size block of rock that landed at this place after an asteroidal impact early in Mars’ history. Finding serpentine in such an early piece of Mars extends even further back the time when Mars could have been habitable.


This finding comes shortly after Perseverance instruments revealed reduction spots in rocks at an ancient river location in Jezero crater, Mars, where organic materials were found. On Earth, reduction spots on rocks are usually produced by “rock-eating” bacteria. More recent analysis of SuperCam data from that area found ore-grade nickel with iron sulfides in the mineral greigite, which on Earth is often produced by bacteria.




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