Jezero Crater

The 45 km wide Jezero Crater, landing site of the MSL Perseverance (Mars 2020) rover. This image is a mosaic incorporating high-resolution surface imagery by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Context Camera (CTX), MRO Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), and Mars Express HRSC collected between 2004 and 2019. The image scale is approximately 6 meters per pixel.

 

Jezero Crater is an ancient crater that is approximately 45 km in diameter. The crater once hosted a large lake, which can be deduced from the large river canyons which cut into its western and eastern rims. The eastern channel, which flows away from the crater, could only have formed when water overtopped the rim and carved a drainage valley through erosion.

 

The most compelling geologic feature of Jezero is the large delta at the mouth of the western canyon. On Earth, deltas have unusually good biological preservation due to rapid burial by sediments being delivered by a river. The Jezero delta is also associated with carbonate rocks, a rare occurrence on the Martian surface. These rocks break down rapidly in acidic conditions, suggesting the lake was full of water that was near neutral or slightly alkaline pH - benign conditions for the emergence of life resembling terrestrial organisms. As a mission designed to search for evidence of ancient Martian life, there were few better spots for Perseverance to look.

 

Image Credit:

For CTX: NASA / JPL / MSSS

For CRISM: NASA / JPL / JHUAPL

For Mars Express: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin

Mosaic: Aster Cowart

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