What is she doing here? This is the question that space conquest specialists are asking, after the discovery made by the Perseverance rover on September 13.
The small vehicle is located on the planet Mars, rising up the side of the Jezero crater, where the landscape is predominantly ocher in color. However, the device’s camera captured a particularly surprising image, reports Futura Science.
The photos transmitted to Earth indeed show a rounded rock whose color surprised NASA astronomers since it is streaked with white and black. “While crossing ordinary rocky terrain, the team spotted a cobblestone in the distance with an unusual texture in the low-resolution Navcam images, and named it ‘Freya Castle,'” the team said. American space agency on its website this Monday.
A rock from far away
According to the first information collected by experts, it could be a rock of magmatic or metamorphic nature. In the latter case, this would mean that the stone was formed in the Martian crust, deep down. Its study could then allow us to learn more about the geological history of the region.
Researchers believe that the origin of this mineral formation is linked to the origins of the Jezero crater. Deep, ancient rocks may have come to the surface following the impact that created the cavity. If the Perseverance rover continued on its way, the researchers still hope to find the block from which the rock broke away. This would make it possible to learn more and more about the history of the crater and, more broadly, about this region of Mars.
