A red rock sample on Mars, collected by the Perseverance rover in 2024 and named “Sapphire Canyon”, is attracting attention because its surface appears to have white spots with black borders that resemble leopard skin.
Scientists believe this morphology may be related to the organic origin on the red planet.
In a study published in the Review of Scientific Instruments of the American Institute of Physics, a team of experts from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) tested the optical-thermal infrared spectroscopy (O-PTIR) technique on a sample of basalt with similar spots found by chance in Arizona (USA).
O-PTIR uses two lasers: one heats the material, creating tiny thermal fluctuations in wavelength; the second measures these changes, creating a unique “chemical fingerprint” of the material.
This technique helps to clearly distinguish the background composition of the stone from unusual dark spots.
In particular, due to the very fast spectral collection in just a few minutes, O-PTIR allows scientists to quickly localize areas that are likely to contain organic compounds for further detailed analysis using more sensitive techniques.
“I was hiking in Sedona and saw a strange-looking rock,” said researcher Nicholas Heinz. “I put it in my backpack and took it home to take a look.”
Experiments on this sample have demonstrated that O-PTIR is a useful tool for processing special rock samples such as Sapphire Canyon when brought back to Earth.
O-PTIR technology is currently only available at NASA's JPL and has been applied to a number of other missions, such as confirming the cleanliness of Europa Clipper, a probe to one of Jupiter's moons, ahead of its 2024 launch.
Scientists say they are working with NASA's Mars research team to conduct further tests on algae fossils - objects often used as similar samples in planetary research.
Scientists emphasize that mastering the analysis of “leopard spots” on both Earth and Mars rocks is an important preparation step for the direct study of real rock samples from Mars, when they are brought back to Earth in future missions./.
Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/da-da-bao-he-lo-dau-vet-su-song-co-dai-tren-sao-hoa-post1056178.vnp
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