https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie … mars-rocks
Apparently there is an unusual weathered coating being observed by Perseverance. I disagree with their claim that it's never been observed before, but apparently this rover is seeing it everywhere, including spots on pebbles.
My immediate baseless suspicion is sublithic algae, like those found in Antarctica. Or, maybe not so sublithic.
Has Perserverance taken a sample of one of these coatings yet? Was this purple patina represented in recent results for organic content?
Just wondering.
CME
*Edit*
See https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-cur … re-on-mars for a brief discussion of Perserverance's SAM instrument results on carbon content of rocks, showing carbon-12 enrichment. Is there enough data to know if there is a correlation between a skewed C12:C13 ratio vs. the atmospheric ratio and the presence of this particular purple patina?
Hmm...
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