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The key to understanding the surface of Mars is stored in Oslo – The PTAL-mineral library

A collection of minerals and mineral descriptions – The Planetary Terrestrial Analogues Library (PTAL) will help scientists understand the surface of Mars. The resource is now ready for ESA's next Mars rover mission (probably postponed until 2028), and is physically located at UiO. The PTAL project is led by Professor Stephanie Werner, who was recently interviewed by sciencenorway.no.

Photo taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Perseverance in the Jezero crater, April 17. The rover is searching for signs of life, but will also collect minerals and dust that will be examined when they are transported back to Earth. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

In a recently completed EU research project 'PTAL - Planetary Terrestrial Analogues Library', researchers from Oslo/No (UiO/CEED/GEO), Paris/FR and Valladolid/ES have collected samples of 102 rock samples/minerals from the Earth's surface, with the aim of understanding what minerals can be found on the planet Mars. – “We use these samples to build both a digital library and a collection of materials. The point is to have datasets from different instruments to be able to more easily understand what they will find there,” says Stephanie C. Werner, Professor at CEED/GEO at the University of Oslo to the online newspaper (English) for research in Norway; sciencenorway.no.

PTAL – Planetary Terrestrial Analogues Library

Read the entire interview with Werner below:

The key to understanding the surface of Mars is stored in Oslo, sciencenorway.no, 30.4.2022

Also in Norwegian:

Nøkkelen til å forstå Mars-overflaten ligger lagret i Oslo, forskning.no, 25.4.2022

Read more about the PTAL-project:

The Planetary Terrestrial Analogues Library / www.ptal.eu

Publisert 10. mai 2022 10:50 - Sist endret 10. mai 2022 11:15