WWU's Melissa Rice co-publishes new article in 'Science' about the initial discoveries of the Mars Perseverance rover

For the next few weeks, Mars and Earth are on "in conjunction" - on opposite sides of the sun, meaning that the work being done by the Mars rover Perseverance, and all the scientists who monitor its daily work including Western's Melissa Rice - are finally getting their first real break since the rover landed in February.

As Perseverance, better known as "Percy" by the scientists who communicate with it every day, continues its long trek across the Martian landscape in search of evidence of that life once existed on the Red Planet, Rice and fellow science team member Briony Horgan of Purdue University wrote this piece in The Conversation about Percy's initial findings.

More importantly, Rice was part of the team of scientists from around the globe to publish the initial findings of the rover in the journal Science, which is generally considered one of the most important and prestigious scientific journals in the world.