Aqueous alteration processes in Jezero crater, Mars-implications for organic geochemistry

Eva L Scheller; Joseph Razzell Hollis; Emily L Cardarelli; Andrew Steele; Luther W Beegle; Rohit Bhartia; Pamela Conrad; Kyle Uckert; Sunanda Sharma; Bethany L Ehlmann; William J Abbey; Sanford A Asher; Kathleen C Benison; Eve L Berger; Olivier Beyssac; Benjamin L Bleefeld; Tanja Bosak; Adrian J Brown; Aaron S Burton; Sergei V Bykov; Ed Cloutis; Alberto G Fairén; Lauren DeFlores; Kenneth A Farley; Deidra M Fey; Teresa Fornaro; Allison C Fox; Marc Fries; Keyron Hickman-Lewis; William F Hug; Joshua E Huggett; Samara Imbeah; Ryan S Jakubek; Linda C Kah; Peter Kelemen; Megan R Kennedy; Tanya Kizovski; Carina Lee; Yang Liu; Lucia Mandon; Francis M McCubbin; Kelsey R Moore; Brian E Nixon; Jorge I Núñez; Carolina Rodriguez Sanchez-Vahamonde; Ryan D Roppel; Mitchell Schulte; Mark A Sephton; Shiv K Sharma; Sandra Siljeström; Svetlana Shkolyar; David L Shuster; Justin I Simon; Rebecca J Smith; Kathryn M Stack; Kim Steadman; Benjamin P Weiss; Alyssa Werynski; Amy J Williams; Roger C Wiens; Kenneth H Williford; Kathrine Winchell; Brittan Wogsland; Anastasia Yanchilina; Rachel Yingling; Maria-Paz Zorzano

doi:10.1126/science.abo5204

Aqueous alteration processes in Jezero crater, Mars-implications for organic geochemistry

Science. 2022 Dec 9;378(6624):1105-1110. doi: 10.1126/science.abo5204. Epub 2022 Nov 23.

Authors

Eva L Scheller^#^{1

2}, Joseph Razzell Hollis^#^{3

4}, Emily L Cardarelli³, Andrew Steele⁵, Luther W Beegle³, Rohit Bhartia⁶, Pamela Conrad⁵, Kyle Uckert³, Sunanda Sharma³, Bethany L Ehlmann^{1

3}, William J Abbey³, Sanford A Asher⁷, Kathleen C Benison⁸, Eve L Berger^{9

10

11}, Olivier Beyssac¹², Benjamin L Bleefeld¹³, Tanja Bosak², Adrian J Brown¹⁴, Aaron S Burton¹¹, Sergei V Bykov⁷, Ed Cloutis¹⁵, Alberto G Fairén^{16

17}, Lauren DeFlores³, Kenneth A Farley¹, Deidra M Fey¹³, Teresa Fornaro¹⁸, Allison C Fox¹¹, Marc Fries¹¹, Keyron Hickman-Lewis^{19

20}, William F Hug⁶, Joshua E Huggett¹³, Samara Imbeah¹³, Ryan S Jakubek¹¹, Linda C Kah²¹, Peter Kelemen²², Megan R Kennedy¹³, Tanya Kizovski²³, Carina Lee²⁴, Yang Liu³, Lucia Mandon²⁵, Francis M McCubbin¹¹, Kelsey R Moore³, Brian E Nixon¹³, Jorge I Núñez²⁶, Carolina Rodriguez Sanchez-Vahamonde¹³, Ryan D Roppel⁷, Mitchell Schulte²⁷, Mark A Sephton²⁸, Shiv K Sharma²⁹, Sandra Siljeström³⁰, Svetlana Shkolyar^{31

32}, David L Shuster³³, Justin I Simon¹¹, Rebecca J Smith³⁴, Kathryn M Stack³, Kim Steadman³, Benjamin P Weiss², Alyssa Werynski¹³, Amy J Williams³⁵, Roger C Wiens^{36

37}, Kenneth H Williford^{3

38}, Kathrine Winchell¹³, Brittan Wogsland²¹, Anastasia Yanchilina³⁹, Rachel Yingling¹³, Maria-Paz Zorzano¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
² Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
³ NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁴ The Natural History Museum, London, UK.
⁵ Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, DC, USA.
⁶ Photon Systems Incorporated, Covina, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁸ Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
⁹ Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA.
¹⁰ Jacobs Johnson Space Center Engineering, Technology and Science Contract, Houston, TX, USA.
¹¹ NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA.
¹² Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 75005 Paris, France.
¹³ Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, CA, USA.
¹⁴ Plancus Research, Severna Park, MD, USA.
¹⁵ Geography, The University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
¹⁶ Centro de Astrobiología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas-Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial, Madrid, Spain.
¹⁷ Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
¹⁸ Astrophysical Observatory of Arcetri, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Florence, Italy.
¹⁹ Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London, UK.
²⁰ Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
²¹ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
²² Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA.
²³ Department of Earth Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1, Canada.
²⁴ Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Houston, TX, USA.
²⁵ Laboratoire d'Etudes Spatiales et d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique, Observatoire de Paris, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Diderot, 92195 Meudon, France.
²⁶ Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA.
²⁷ Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, USA.
²⁸ Earth Science and Engineering, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ London, UK.
²⁹ Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA.
³⁰ Research Institutes of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden.
³¹ Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
³² NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
³³ Earth and Planetary Science, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
³⁴ Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
³⁵ Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
³⁶ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
³⁷ Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
³⁸ Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA, USA.
³⁹ Impossible Sensing, St. Louis, MO, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 36417498
DOI: 10.1126/science.abo5204

Abstract

The Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater, Mars, in February 2021. We used the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument to perform deep-ultraviolet Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy of three rocks within the crater. We identify evidence for two distinct ancient aqueous environments at different times. Reactions with liquid water formed carbonates in an olivine-rich igneous rock. A sulfate-perchlorate mixture is present in the rocks, which probably formed by later modifications of the rocks by brine. Fluorescence signatures consistent with aromatic organic compounds occur throughout these rocks and are preserved in minerals related to both aqueous environments.