Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 March 9

       Perseverance 360: Unusual Rocks and the Search for Life on Mars
                 Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, ASU, MSSS

   Explanation: Is that a fossil?  Looking through recent images of Mars
   taken by the new Perseverance rover may seem a bit like treasure
   hunting, with the possibility of fame coming to the first person to
   correctly identify a petrified bone, a rock imprinted by an ancient
   plant, or any clear indication that life once existed on Mars.
   Unfortunately, even though it is possible that something as spectacular
   as a skeleton could be identified, most exobiologists think it much
   more likely that biochemical remnants of ancient single-celled microbes
   could be found with Perseverance's chemical analyzers.  A key reason is
   that multicellular organisms may take a greater amount of oxygen to
   evolve than has ever been present on Mars. That said, nobody's sure, so
   please feel free to digitally magnify any Perseverance image that
   interests you -- including the featured 360-degree zoomable image of
   the rocks and ridges surrounding Perseverance's landing location in
   Jezero Crater. And even though NASA-affiliated scientists are
   themselves studying Perseverance's images, if you see anything really
   unusual, please post it to popular social media. If your sighting turns
   out to be particularly intriguing, scientifically, it is likely that
   NASA will hear about it.

                  Tomorrow's picture: california spaced up
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.
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