Perseverance rover is back at it with an image of a rock formation that’s getting the Internet talking. On Friday (June 23), the NASA rover captured a photo of a dark rocky object that, oddly enough, resembles a doughnut…
NASA’s Perseverance rover has spent the last year and a half on Mars exploring an ancient lake bed called the Jezero Crater. Its primary task is to collect rock-core samples from features within a 28-mile (45-kilometer) wide area long considered by scientists to be a prime location for finding signs of microbial life that may have existed 3.5 billion years ago.
Though, from time to time, NASA controllers navigating the rover stumble upon objects worth photographing for a close look.
The doughnut-shaped object in question was acquired using the Perseverance rover’s SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager at the top of the rover’s mast (aka its “eye”).
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Even the SETI Insitute, with a sole mission to better understand the origins of life in the universe, chimed in on Twitter to say the rock “could be a large meteorite alongside smaller pieces.” Laying the alien conspiracy theories to rest.
Raw images of the rock:
You can see more images of Mars taken on the same day in the Perseverance rover’s media archive.
As Perseverance continues its mission in the Gale Crater, scientists eagerly anticipate further insights into the nature of this mysterious rock.
While this discovery won’t necessarily better our understanding of the planet, it does serve as a testament to humanity’s relentless pursuit of knowledge and our curiosity for the unknown.
What do you think Perseveance’s latest discovery could be? Let us know in the comments.
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