NASA ’s Perseverance scouter has bumble across a rather intriguing rock candy while driving west declivity towards grim " Witch Hazel Hill " on the boundary of theJezero Craterrim on Mars .
Over the last calendar week , thePerseverancerover has moved down the Witch Hazel Hill area , towards an area named by the team as " Port Anson " . From arena , NASA identify a serial of light and obscure - toned bands , and sent the rover to the boundary between two bands to investigate from a closer vantage decimal point . At this water parting , termed a " contact " , the rover meet a mixture of rocks which appear to have " initiate from elsewhere " and have been transported to the region , known as " air bladder rocks " , mean that they are out of spot with its environment .
One rock , which the team have named rather dramatically " Skull Hill " , stood out more than the others .
Meteorite found in Gale crater on Mars.Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
" This air bladder careen unambiguously counterpoint the palisade light - toned outcrop with its dark tone and angular surface , and it features a few endocarp in the rock , " Margaret Deahn , Ph.D. Student at Purdue University , explain in aNASA web log . " If you count close , you might even spot spherules within the surround regolith ! "
There are a few options for how the John Rock get there . One is that it is in fact a meteorite , deposited onto the major planet ’s aerofoil . Meteoritesfound by the Curiosity bird of passage in Gale volcanic crater have interchangeable appearances to Skull Hill .
However , look can be deceiving . The meteorites found in Gale volcanic crater were found to contain with child amounts of iron and nickel , but analysis of nearby John Rock on Witch Hazel Hill intimate that they are not of meteorologic origin .
" or else , ‘ Skull Hill ’ could be an fiery rock’n’roll eroded from a nearby outcrop or ejected from an shock volcanic crater , " Deahn continues . " On Earth and Mars , iron and magnesium are some of the independent contributors to igneous rocks , which form from the cooling of magma or lava . These rocks can include dingy - colored minerals such as olivine , pyroxene , amphibole , and biotite . Luckily for us , the wanderer has instruments that can measure the chemical composition of rock’n’roll on Mars . "
The Perseverance squad will keep on to consider the rock , and others like it , hopefully provide answer as to how the swim bladder rock got there , as well as what ’s up with thoseunusual spherulesidentified there last month .
