On Feb. 18, 2021, the Perseverance rover touched down in Mars’ Jezero Crater. Designed and built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, this rover has been collecting and analyzing rock and soil samples from the Red Planet. This mission is helping scientists understand Mars’ geology and climate. Perhaps more significantly, those samples may also contain signs of ancient life.
Three and a half billion years ago, Mars was very different from today. The planet had a thick atmosphere. Jezero Crater was a large lake filled with water. During that time, a river flowed into
