Mars: first results from the Perseverance rover

Publication of LGL-TPE in Science on October 7, 2021. CNRS press release on October 7, 2021. The Perseverance rover has now confirmed the suitability of its landing site: Jezero crater really did contain a lake, into which a river flowed through a delta 3.6 billion years ago. Led by a CNRS researcher, the international team involved scientists in France from Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier , and published its findings on October 7 in Science. The observations were obtained using the NASA rover's SuperCam instrument, built in France under the supervision of the French space agency CNES. Perseverance landed on the surface of Mars last February and immediately began to explore its surroundings, with the goal of better understanding the past history of the Red Planet. In this very first study based on data from the rover, led by a CNRS geologist from the Laboratory of Planetology and Geodynamics (CNRS / Université de Nantes/Université d'Angers), the NASA rover has confirmed the relevance of its landing site and shed new light on its hydrological evolution.