NASA discovers rock on Mars that shouldnt be there and scientists think its a visitor from outer space
Like an interstellar rolling stone.NASA scientists were baffled after uncovering a rock on Mars that didn’t belong there — with a composition pointing to potentially interstellar origins.“This rock was identified as a target of interest,” the space agency wrote in a recent blog post detailing the potentially intergalactic gravelstone.NASA’s Perseverance Rover, which has been exploring the Red Planet for five years now, stumbled across the geological anomaly while exploring the Vernodden area of the 28-mile-wide Jezero Crater, per the post.Dubbed “Phippsaksla,” the rock measured around 31 inches wide.And while finding a stone on Mars might not seem groundbreaking, this particular specimen stood out due to its “sculpted, high-standing appearance that differed from that of the low-lying, flat and fragmented surrounding rocks.”Subsequent analysis by the Rover’s SuperCam revealed that the Martian pebble was high in iron and nickel — an element combo associated more with “iron-nickel” meteorites rather than more run-of-the-mill rocks.Unlike their rocky brethren, these metallic space stones are typically formed from the heart of large asteroids, Science Alert reported.
They were created when heavy minerals embedded themselves in heated rocks during the early days of the Solar System.This seemed to suggest that “Phippsaksla” didn’t originate on Mars but was rather part of a meteor that had crash-landed on the planet in the past.Coincidentally, other iron-nickel meteorites had been found on Mars before — including the “Cacao” meteorite spotted in 2023 — but this was the first time Perseverance had stumbled across one of these interstellar rolling stones.Scientists will need to conduct further tests to confirm that the metal-filled stone is indeed a meteorite.If it is, the rock could provide valuable clues about the history of the Red Planet.This isn’t the first Earth-shattering geologic discovery made by the Red Planet rover of la...