Rubies on Mars?
Many attributes of a… Mars Exploration: Science Goals The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four… Mars Perseverance Rover The Mars Perseverance rover is the first leg the Mars Sample Return Campaign’s interplanetary relay team.
Key points
- Article 14 minutes ago 4 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 5043-5049: Preparing to Drill at ‘Nazca’ Article 2 weeks ago 2 min read Tinga’s Tale Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA All Mars Resources Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits.
- Explore This Section Perseverance Home Mission Overview Rover Components Mars Rock Samples Where is Perseverance?
- It’s great to have this unexpected tool on board as we delve further into Mars’ deep past.
Corundum is a metamorphic and pegmatitic mineral which we would not expect to find on Mars, a planet that lacks plate tectonics.
Additional details
- Earlier in the mission we tried this technique only rarely; lately we have carried out the time-resolved luminescence observations frequently on light-toned rocks to look for more evidence of impact effects.
- Prior to installing SuperCam on Perseverance, we placed a ruby in the laser beam and watched the entire room pulse a brilliant red as SuperCam’s laser beam hit the gemstone; it was extremely bright.
- Two years ago, the SuperCam team was startled to find strong, narrow luminescence peaks at two wavelengths of 692.7 and 694.1 nanometers when they shot a light-colored rock with the laser.
- Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,… Rover Basics Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science.
- SuperCam can time the delay of the atomic transitions via the resulting photons, and so we could verify that this emission came from chromium in corundum.
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