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The answer probably everyone will give
is the evidence for ancient life.

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Specifically for my research, is where
we find these hydrothermal systems so

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where igneous rocks interact with
sedimentary rocks, especially water

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bearing ones, they produce hydrothermal
fluids. Those fluids have a distinct

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signature when they evaporate, leaving
behind the minerals, and they were

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habitable environments. The cool thing
with Perseverance is the PIXL instrument.

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We can actually pull apart
the rocks in place, in situ, on Mars and

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look at these textures and see which
minerals were dissolving and which new

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minerals were forming and we can
constrain the fluids really precisely

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based on what we saw. It'll be the first
time we can do this and we can use my

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analogue sight sort of as a comparison
to see what's going on.

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So, Mars 2020 Perseverance is going to
Jezero crater. One of the nice things

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about Jezero crater is we're gonna land
on or near a volcanic floor unit in

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contact with sediments, and one of the
things me and my team have been working

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on is a Mars analogue site where we see
just this: igneous dike cross-cutting

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sediments and producing hydrothermal
activity and so we can actually test all