NASA rover spots something on Mars that doesnt belong there
NASA’s Perseverance rover has identified an exotic rock on Mars that may be an iron-nickel meteorite, according to scientists on the mission team.
The oddly sculpted rock, nicknamed Phippsaksla, measures more than 2.5 feet across and drew researchers’ attention because it jutted above the surrounding flat, fractured terrain. Perseverance targeted the object for closer study while working outside Jezero crater, the river-carved basin the rover has explored since landing in 2021.
The rover, a car-size mobile laboratory, photographed Phippsaksla on Sept. 2 and Sept. 19. But the public is only now learning of the find. A prolonged federal government shutdown delayed routine communications from the U.S. space agency, and NASA did not post details of the detection — along with other mission updates — until Nov. 13.
If confirmed as a meteorite, Phippsaksla would be the first such discovery for Perseverance. The Curiosity rover has cataloged several metal-rich meteorites during its exploration of Gale Crater roughly 2,000 miles away, and earlier rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, found these foreign rocks as well. Their absence along Perseverance’s route has puzzled mission scientists.
"It has been somewhat unexpected that Perseverance had not seen iron-nickel meteorites within Jezero crater," said Candice Bedford, a Purdue University research scientist, in a delayed Oct. 1 mission update, "particularly given its similar age to Gale crater and number of smaller impact craters suggesting that meteorites did fall on the crater floor, delta, and crater rim throughout time."
Initial readings from Perseverance’s SuperCam, an instrument that fires a laser to analyze a rock’s composition, revealed high levels of iron and nickel, a combination commonly found in meteorites that originate deep inside large asteroids. The chemistry suggests the rock formed elsewhere before landing on Mars.
Meteorites are common in the solar system, but harder to spot on Earth. Scientists estimate that about 48.5 tons of this debris reach the planet each day, most of it burning up in the atmosphere or falling into oceans. Only about 60,000 meteorites have been identified on Earth to date.
Most known meteorites come from asteroids, though a small number originate from the moon or Mars. At least 175 Martian meteorites have been found on Earth — all igneous rocks that once crystallized from magma.
On Mars itself, iron-nickel meteorites tend to survive well in the thin atmosphere and harsh environment. Since 2005, The Meteoritical Society, an international organization that tracks such finds, has formally recognized 15 Martian meteorites spotted by rovers. Curiosity’s 2023 discovery of a foot-wide rock nicknamed Cacao, also believed to be metal-rich, is not yet among them.
Scientists suspect iron meteorites might be able to resist erosion on Mars, which may explain why some appear perched on flat ground rather than embedded in craters. In other cases, a crater may have weathered away long ago, leaving only the rock behind.
Perseverance is now operating on older bedrock mottled by past impacts outside Jezero crater, a setting where meteorites may be more likely. Mission researchers are planning further analysis to determine Phippsaksla’s origin.
"If this rock is deemed to be a meteorite," Bedford wrote, "Perseverance can at long last add itself to the list of Mars rovers who have investigated the fragments of rocky visitors to Mars."
