NASA’s Perseverance Rover Discovers Ancient Martian Rock Layers – NASA’s Mars rover, Perseverance, has unearthed evidence suggesting that a 75-meter (245-foot) thick stack of ancient rocks located at the rim of Jezero Crater was formed through a series of asteroid impacts. This geological formation, identified as the Bloompoint Member by the rover’s science team, is thought to be over 3.9 billion years old, making it one of the oldest Martian landforms ever examined by a rover.
This groundbreaking discovery was detailed in a recent publication in the Geophysical Research Journal: Planets, offering insights into one of the most chaotic periods in the solar system’s history.
“Since departing Jezero, Perseverance has been charting an entirely new frontier—both geographically and geologically—a narrative from the Martian past that predates the crater itself,” stated Ken Farley, Deputy Project Scientist for Perseverance at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. “Unlike Earth, where early geological history has been obscured by plate tectonics, Mars, devoid of such processes, preserves this ancient record intact. It offers us an exceptional opportunity to study a geological era that has been lost on our planet.”
Upon reaching the west rim, Perseverance has been investigating Jezero Crater since late 2024. The rover is equipped with advanced scientific tools to analyze surrounding regions. Initial findings from the Broompoint area revealed six distinct rock types, including breccia—a rock made up of angular fragments—interspersed with layers of fine, crushed rock dust. Notably, the rock fragments present in the breccia contain air bubble cavities, suggesting they were once molten.
The discovery of small, dark, glassy beads within the rock layers has provided critical clues regarding their formation. While volcanoes can create similar glassy droplets, such occurrences are rare in significant quantities, indicating that asteroid impacts are likely the primary cause. The largest beads found are comparable to those ejected during the Chicxulub impact, which led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The consistent repetition of varying rock types across this substantial formation indicates that high-energy impact events continuously occurred in this region of early Mars.
Dr. Alex Jones, a planetary geology student at Imperial College London and the study’s lead author, commented, “The diverse rock formations record impact events of varying sizes from different distances around the site where these rock layers accumulated. Some significant impacts occurred far away, while smaller ones happened nearby, all contributing to the construction of this thick rock section.”
The mechanism of layer formation may also allude to interactions with water or ice. Certain layers appear to have formed from high-velocity debris flows that blanketed the ground. On Earth, such powerful, fluid-like movements can arise when molten rock strikes water or ice, rapidly transforming into steam.
Several Broom Point formations exhibit tilt angles surpassing 80 degrees, presenting near-vertical orientations, which cannot solely be attributed to the impact that formed Jezero Crater.
Researchers believe a cosmic “one-two punch” influenced this landscape. Initially, a giant asteroid impact created the Isidis Basin, spanning 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers), one of Mars’ largest impact basins, leading to the flipping and tilting of previously flat rock formations. Subsequently, another asteroid struck, forming Jezero Crater, which is 45 km (28 miles) in diameter, further fracturing and elevating the already tilted rocks to create the striking formations observed today.
To accurately date these geological events, the Perseverance team collected two core samples named “Bell Island” and “Main River.” If future missions return these samples to Earth, laboratory analysis could reveal the timeline of impacts on early Mars. Moreover, we may uncover records from infant Earth disfigured by billions of years of plate tectonics.
“During this tumultuous period, what fell from the sky consisted not of rain or snow, but a relentless barrage of lava spray and pulverized dust propelled by asteroid impacts,” noted Jones. “Determining the age of these geological formations would be akin to reading a space weather forecast from 4 billion years ago.”
About NASA’s Perseverance Rover – NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages the Perseverance rover’s construction and operations on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate as part of the Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Operations for the rover’s MastCam Z instrument are led by Arizona State University, in collaboration with Marine Space Science Systems. The SuperCam is directed by Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and the SHERLOC (Scanning for Habitable Environments for Organics and Chemicals) instrument was developed at NASA JPL, while the WATSON (Operational and Engineering Wide-Angle Terrain Sensor) camera was constructed by Marine Space Science Systems.
Learn more about NASA’s Perseverance Rover below.
Media Contacts for Further Information:
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-393-9011
[email protected]
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
240-285-5155 / 202-672-4780
[email protected] / [email protected]
Report Reference: 2026-045
Source: www.nasa.gov