NASA’s Perseverance Rover continues its mission to investigate Mars’ surface geological process, and history, assessing its past habitability and the possibility of past life. Scientists are using data gathered on a mission much closer to home at a lake in southwest Turkey—Lake Salda. NASA notes that the minerals and rock deposits at Salda are the closest match on Earth to those around the Jezero Crater on Mars where the spacecraft landed, which is believed was once flooded with water. The information gathered from the Turkish lake may help scientists to find clues to life on the Red Planet.

Since landed, NASA’s Perseverance Rover has been actively capturing details from the Martian surfacing and sharing the images for space enthusiasts on Earth. It even went on sharing its live location, where one can figure out each day, where the rover is currently located. The mission will seek signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past and search for past microbial life and water evidence.

Lake Salda is a mid-size crater lake in southwestern Turkey, within the boundaries of Yeşilova district of Burdur Province. NASA notes that information gathered from the Turkish lake may help scientists to find fossilised traces of microbial life in Mars. A team of American and Turkish planetary scientists carried out research in 2019 in the shorelines of Lake Salda. They believe the sediments around the lake eroded from large mounds that are formed with the help of microbes, called mircobialities. The team behind the Perseverance rover wants to find out whether there are microbialities in Jezero Crater. They will further compare the beach sediments from Salda, with the carbonate minerals detected on Jezero Crater's margins, as noted by reports.

With the samples, the scientists seek to study the similarities and differences between the samples collected from the Martian surface and Lake Salda. NASA’s perseverance expects to explore both the crater floor and delta during its mission.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 11, 2021 01:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).