Perseverance robot found this semi-precious stone on Mars

After taking the third samples on the soil of Mars, NASA published some photographs where The Perseverance robot collected olivine crystals from the surface of MarsIt is a semi-precious stone It was also news on our planet after it was expelled by the Cumbre Vega volcano a few weeks ago On the Spanish island of La Palma.

The results have been published in Official Rover Account determination, where it was announced that the robot had collected a rock sample containing olivine, an olive green mineral (from which it gets its name), which is commonly used in jewelry due to its resistance to high temperatures (called peridot in gem quality) but also has applications industrial mining operations.

olivine is not common on the surface of our planet, it can be found to a greater degree in the upper mantle of the Earth (it crystallizes at a depth of about 70 kilometers); However, various pieces of this stone were scattered on the island of La Palma as a result of the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, for which the community is still on alert.

This third sample of Mars soil aims to obtain more geological information about the Red Planet. Although NASA has not provided further details about the discovery, it is known that persistence analyzes lake craterMillions of years ago, the planet had a lake of water. The robot’s first harvest resulted in a rock that was decided to be called Rochette; However, this sample collected in September was too crushed to study, and in a second sampling attempt it would have been possible to collect a significant sample that will be returned to Earth in the future. The main goal of the mission is to be able to find fossils that show evidence of the existence of biological life in the past.

Olive oil could be an option to mitigate climate change

An investigation by geologist Matthijs A. Smit and Professor Klaus Mezger could indicate that this mineral was an important component of the oxygenation process and life on Earth, since chemical reactions of this mineral prevent oxygen in contact with water, and it wasn’t until this was done. Disappear that the accumulation of oxygen saturates the water, and transit to the atmosphere.

“After this change, Earth became more habitable and suitable for the evolution of complex life, but that needed some activation mechanisms, and that’s what we might find,” Smit explained in a research statement.

In addition, olivine could be a viable option in the future because through “improved weathering,” a process in which fine terrestrial rocks are dispersed over the surface and the sea, “carbon sequestration” can be generated, which is long. The process of absorbing carbon dioxide on Earth. Removing carbon dioxide through chemical reactions olivine is an option being studied because it is an accessible mineral that readily reacts with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

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