Overview
- Perseverance’s RIMFAX instrument collected its deepest dataset to date during 78 traverses from September 2023 to February 2024, mapping more than 35 meters below the surface along a 6.1-kilometer path.
- Radar reflections image dipping layered sediments, channels and lobes consistent with a concealed river–delta system within the Margin unit, which the team estimates to be about 85–90 meters thick.
- Researchers date the buried deposits to roughly 3.7–4.2 billion years ago, predating Jezero’s surface Western Delta estimated at about 3.5–3.7 billion years.
- The study, led by UCLA’s Emily Cardarelli and published March 18 in Science Advances, indicates multiple episodes of deposition and erosion that extend Jezero’s fluvial history.
- Scientists emphasize that no evidence of past life has been detected, though the subsurface architecture could better preserve potential biosignatures and inform future sampling priorities.