Scientists that taking a shot at the Mars 2020 mission is now taking its shape, which the company narrowed down from eight to three potential landing sites for its 2020 rover. The three on the list includes the Northeast Syrtis, Jezero Crater, and Columbia Hills, which will gather up Martian rock and soil in the hopes of one day returning them to Earth.

According to Yahoo News, the three destinations incorporate with specific geographical areas found on the red planet. The Mars 2020 mission is an unnamed mission by NASA's Mars Exploration Program, contracted for launch in July 2020 on board the Atlas V 541 rocket from the Space Launch Complex at Florida.

The rover, which is a programmed motor vehicle rotating over the surface of the red planet is required to conduct geological evaluations including the possibility of Mars past life and natural resources and dangers for future human explorers. The three landing destinations are still in dispute include Jezero crater, which was once home to an old Martian lake and which could preserve the remaining parts of microbial life, if it ever occurs on Mars.

Nature added target Northeast Syrtis, where hot waters once circled through the outside and could have upheld life, and Columbia Hills, wherein the region was investigated for years by NASA's Spirit rover. Unlike Jezero and Northeast Syrtis, Columbia Hills did not score highly in the community vote. A group of researchers on the 2020 project explicitly prescribed against returning the site.

The report argued that sending the 2020 rover to Columbia Hills was probably not going to determine confusion about whether its silica rocks, which take after aqueous deposits on Earth that could be connected to life. A landing site is critical as it could take years before another mission can be sent to gather more geological samples from the red planet.

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