NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance captured this image of a possible meteorite on the Red Planet on June 23, 2023. (Image credit: Future)
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover lunges at a cake that may have fallen from the sky.
On Friday (23/6), Perseverance took a photo of a large dark stone with a hole in the middle. The interesting rock is flanked by other rocks of the same color, suggesting a common ancestor – possibly going beyond Mars.
The donut rock “could be a large meteorite along with small pieces,” according to representatives from the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, California. he said via Twitter On Monday (June 26).
Related: 12 stunning photos from Perseverance’s first year on Mars
Such a discovery was unprecedented. persistence I saw a possible meteorite A few weeks after landing in February 2021, for example.
The rover’s larger cousin, Curiosity, has discovered a number of space rocks on Mars since its landing in August 2012, including a mineral rock dubbed cocoa in February this year.
Incidentally, the Perseverance find isn’t the first pretzel-like rock a Martian robot has rolled. In January 2014, NASA’s Opportunity spacecraft spotted a rock that was white on the outside and red on the inside, prompting members of the mission team to compare it to a jelly cake.
Perseverance is exploring a 28-metre (45-kilometer) wide crater on Mars called Jezero, which housed massive lakes and river deltas billions of years ago. The car-sized rover mapped the ancient environment, looking for signs of long-term life and collecting dozens of samples for future return to Earth.
A tiny helicopter called the Ingenuity helps put the big explorer to work. Creativity cruised to Mars with Perseverance and was immediately successful on its five-flight test mission, demonstrating that atmospheric exploration is possible on the Red Planet.
The 4-pound (1.8 kg) helicopter is now on an extended mission, searching for routes and promising science targets for its robotic partners to study. Ingenuity has made 51 Mars flights so far, covering a total of 7.3 miles (11.7 kilometers) from the Red Planet region.
2023-06-27 22:35:15
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