NASA Mars Rover Visits the ‘Bacon Strip,’ a Paradise for Rock Nerds – CNET [CNET]

Perseverance is in geology heaven.

This story is part of Welcome to Mars, our series exploring the red planet.

What a delightful time to be a Mars fan. We’ve got a pet rock, a mysterious piece of foil and a bonanza of stunning landscapes where NASA’s Perseverance rover is exploring an intriguing river delta region in the Jezero Crater. The latest views are sizzling. Meet the “bacon strip.”

The bacon strip got its original nickname from how the ground looks in images from a distance, like a piece of breakfast meat. It now has a more official nickname: Hogwallow Flats, a nod to a scenic spot in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

The Perseverance team tweeted out several views of the bacon strip/Hogwallow Flats area on Thursday, saying “…the nearby rocks are a sight to behold. My team is happy as pigs in mud(stone)!”

From earlier, distant views, my team nicknamed this area “the bacon strip.” (My overhead map shows why.) Now that I’m up on top, we’re calling it “Hogwallow Flats” – and the nearby rocks are a sight to behold. My team is happy as pigs in mud(stone)!

Map: https://t.co/SEbqOKoQq1 pic.twitter.com/fsz5hFjmLF

— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 16, 2022

The Perseverance team shared some close-ups of the surrounding landscape, tweeting, “Tons of potential targets for study. Paradise for rock nerds like myself.”

I mean, take a look at some of these close-ups. Tons of potential targets for study. Paradise for rock nerds like myself. pic.twitter.com/0uEHHVvZds

— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 16, 2022

The delta is a prime spot for Percy to pursue one of its main goals: investigating whether Mars might’ve hosted microbial life. “We will look for signs of ancient life in the rocks at the base of the delta, rocks that we think were once mud on the bottom of ‘Lake Jezero,'” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley in a mission update in April. 

The rover is doing more than just looking. It’s also collecting rock samples that’ll hopefully be retrieved by a future mission and brought back to Earth for study. Rocks gathered from the delta will be of particular interest considering the history of water in that spot.

Come for the rocks. Stay for the search for ancient life.