NASA to Announce New Finding from perseverance Rover on Mars
PASADENA, Calif. – NASA will detail a new finding from its Perseverance Mars rover in a media briefing today, offering potential new insights into the red Planet’s ancient habitability. The announcement comes as the rover continues its exploration of Jezero Crater, a region believed to have once held a lake billions of years ago.
As landing in February 2021, Perseverance has been collecting rock and sediment samples in search of potential biosignatures – indicators of past microbial life. This latest discovery, stemming from analysis of a sample collected in July 2024 and named “Sapphire Canyon,” builds upon the rover’s ongoing work to characterize the geology of Jezero Crater and assess its potential to have supported life. The findings will be shared during a live event with opportunities for media questions.
The briefing will cover details of the “Sapphire Canyon” sample, gathered from rocky outcrops along the edges of Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley that fed into Jezero Crater. Perseverance has, to date, collected 30 samples, leaving six empty tubes for future collection. The rover utilizes an abrasion tool for detailed analysis of geologic targets, alongside a weather station providing environmental data relevant to future human missions and tests of spacesuit material durability.
The event will be held today, and media members wishing to ask questions by phone must RSVP to rexana.v.vizza@jpl.nasa.gov no later than one hour before the start time. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.
The Perseverance rover mission is managed by Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for NASA’s Science Mission directorate. More information about the mission is available at https://www.nasa.gov/perseverance.
Media Contacts:
Bethany Stevens / Karen Fox, NASA headquarters, Washington, 202-358-1600, bethany.c.stevens@nasa.gov / karen.c.fox@nasa.gov
DC Agle, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., 818-393-9011, agle@jpl.nasa.gov