NASA's Perseverance rover collected a sample called "Singita" on October 24 in the Lac de Charmes region of Mars, outside Jezero crater. The sample may rank among the oldest rocks exposed on the Martian surface.
Katie Stack Morgan, project scientist for Perseverance, announced the discovery at the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences conference. She said the rock was likely buried about 1 kilometer deep in the Martian crust before being thrown to the surface by asteroid or comet impacts.
Singita is Perseverance's first sample of crystalline igneous rock collected outside Jezero crater, which formed roughly 3.9 billion years ago. The Singita rock is likely at least as old as Jezero and could be several hundred million years older. It may be a fragment of the impact that formed Isidis Basin, one of Mars' largest impact basins, or could predate that basin entirely. Scientists cannot determine the rock's exact age without analyzing it on Earth.
The rover's first drilling attempt failed because the rock was extremely hard. Perseverance switched to a different drill bit before succeeding. This marked the rover's first sample collection in over a year.
Stack Morgan said Perseverance will remain in the region to collect two more samples, including one from a younger crystalline igneous rock.