A Low Albedo, Thin, Resistant Unit in Oxia Planum, Mars: Evidence for an Airfall Deposit and Late-Stage Groundwater Activity at the ExoMars Rover Landing Site.

ABSTRACT: Oxia Planum, Mars, is the future landing site of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission, which will search for preserved biosignatures in a phyllosilicate-bearing unit. Overlying the mission-important phyllosilicate-bearing rocks is a dark, capping unit-known here as the Low albedo, Thin, Resistant (LTR) unit-which may have protected the phyllosilicate-bearing unit over geologic time from solar insolation and radiation. However, little is known about the origin of the LTR unit. Here, we map the LTR unit and investigate its distribution and morphology across 50,000 km² using a variety of orbital remote sensing data sets. The characteristics of the LTR unit include draping palaeo-topographic surfaces, deposition over a wide elevation range, and a consistent vertical th

SUBMITTER: Harris E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11583114 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature