NASA’s Perseverance rover found a new potential setting for Martian life

It also may have found the oldest rocks yet seen in the solar system

A sandy area with rocks is shown

Prior to summiting Jezero Crater on Mars, the Perseverance rover explored ancient rocks near the crater rim in this area known as the Pico Turquino Hills.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

WASHINGTON D.C. — The Perseverance Rover on Mars may have stumbled upon the oldest rocks humans have ever seen and, possibly, evidence of a new setting that ancient Martian organisms could have inhabited, if they ever existed.