Mars rover scrapes at rock to 'look at something no one's ever seen'

The Perseverance rover took a well-deserved break in October during solar conjunction, but it's back to investigating intriguing rocks in Jezero Crater on Mars.

Solar conjunction -- a period when the sun is between Earth and Mars -- began on October 2, which halted NASA's communications with the rover. This blackout ended on October 19, and Perseverance jumped right back into its search for signs of ancient life on the red planet.

One of the rover's key goals is to collect samples from rocks and dirt on Mars that will be returned to Earth by future missions. It has already collected two samples and has used help from the Ingenuity helicopter, acting as an aerial scout, to find its next sample-worthy targets.

Since October 25, Perseverance has been investigating some rock outcrops of the planet's South Séítah region, which are of interest to the rover's science team on Earth. The rover has an abrading tool on its robotic arm that can scrape away at rock layers to take a look inside these rocks.

"Layered rocks like this often form in water, and can hold clues about what their environment used to be like. Let's see if this would be another good place for #SamplingMars," read a post from the rover's Facebook account, run by NASA, on November 4.