This story is part of Welcome to Mars, our series that explores the red planet.
What a pleasant time to be a fan of Mars. We have a pet rock, a mysterious piece of foil, and a lot of stunning scenery where NASA’s Perseverance rover is exploring an intriguing region of the river delta in Jezero Crater. The last views are spectacular. Meet the “bacon strip”.
The bacon strip got its original nickname for how the ground looks in pictures from afar, like a piece of breakfast meat. It now has a more official nickname: Hogwallow Flats, a look at a scenic spot in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
The Perseverance team tweeted several views of the Bacon / Hogwallow Flats area on Thursday, saying “… the nearby rocks are a sight to behold. My team is happy as pigs in the mud (stone) ! “
From previous and distant views, my team called this area “the bacon strip.” (My map above shows why.) Now that I’m upstairs, we call it “Hogwallow Flats” and the nearby rocks are a sight to behold. My team is happy as pigs in the mud (stone)!
Map: pic.twitter.com/fsz5hFjmLF
– NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 16, 2022
The Perseverance team shared some close-ups of the surrounding landscape, tweeting, “Tones of potential targets to study. Paradise for rock nerds like me.”
I mean, take a look at some of these close-ups. Tons of potential study targets. A paradise for rock nerds like me. pic.twitter.com/0uEHHVvZds
– NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 16, 2022
The delta is a prime place for Percy to pursue one of his main goals: to investigate whether Mars could have hosted microbial life. “We will look for signs of ancient life in the rocks at the base of the delta, rocks that we believe used to be mud at the bottom of ‘Lake Jezero,'” Ken Farley, a Perseverance scientist, said in an update to the mission to the ‘April.
The rover is doing more than just looking. It is also collecting rock samples that we hope will be recovered by a future mission and brought to Earth to study. The rocks collected from the delta will be of special interest given the history of the water in this place.
Come and get the rocks. Stay in search of ancient life.