NASA‘S Perseverance Rover has identified an alien rock Mars planet it may be iron-nickel meteoriteAccording to the scientists of the mission team.
The oddly sculpted rock, nicknamed Phipsaxla, is more than 2.5 feet wide and attracted researchers’ attention because it rises above the surrounding flat, fractured terrain. Perseverance targeted the object for closer study while working outside Jezero Crater, the river-carved basin that the rover has explored since landing in 2021.
The rover, a car-sized mobile laboratory, photographed Phipsaxla on September 2 and September 19. But the public is only now learning about this discovery. Regular communications with the US were delayed due to the prolonged shutdown of the federal government. space The agency, and NASA, did not post details of the detection along with other mission updates until November 13.
If confirmed as a meteorite, Phipsaxla would be the first such discovery for Perseverance. Curiosity rover catalogs several metal-rich meteorites while exploring Gale Crater about 2,000 miles awayAnd earlier rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, also found these exotic rocks. Their absence on Perseverance’s path has puzzled mission scientists.
“It is somewhat unexpected that Perseverance did not see an iron-nickel meteorite within Jezero Crater,” Candice Bedford, a research scientist at Purdue University, said late on October 1. mission update“Notably its age is similar to Gale Crater and the number of small impact craters suggests that meteorites fell on the crater floor, delta, and crater rim throughout time.”
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Preliminary readings from Perseverance’s SuperCam, an instrument that fires lasers to analyze the composition of rock, revealed high levels of iron and nickel, a combination typically found in meteorites that originate deep inside larger asteroids. The chemistry suggests the rock formed elsewhere before landing on Mars.
Meteorites are common in the Solar System, but they are difficult to see on Earth. Scientists estimate it to be about 48.5 tons debris Reaching the planet each day, much of it burns up in the atmosphere or falls into the oceans. Only about 60,000 meteorites have been identified on Earth to date.
The oddly sculpted rock, nicknamed Phipsaxla, is more than 2.5 feet wide and attracted researchers’ attention because it rises above the surrounding flat, fractured terrain.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Most known meteorites come from asteroids, although a small number originate from moon Or Mars. at least 175 Martian meteorites Found on Earth are all igneous rocks that once crystallized from magma.
On Mars itself, iron-nickel meteorites survive well in the thin atmosphere and harsh environment. Since 2005, the Meteorological Society, an international organization Tracks such searcheshas formally recognized 15 Martian meteorites spotted by rovers. Curiosity’s discovery of 2023 A foot wide rock nicknamed CacaoWhich is also considered metal-rich, is not yet among them.
Phipsaxla, possibly a meteorite, is located on the Martian terrain outside the Jezero crater rim in the upper left corner of this image.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Scientists suspect that iron meteorites may be able to resist erosion on Mars, which may explain why some meteorites appear to be sitting on flat ground rather than being sunk into craters. In other cases, the crater may have eroded away long ago, leaving only rock behind.
Perseverance is now working on older rock affected by past impacts outside Jezero Crater, a setting where meteorites may be more likely. Mission researchers are planning further analysis to determine the origin of Phipsaxla.
“If this rock is deemed a meteorite,” Bedford wrote, “Perseverance could eventually add itself to the list of Mars rovers that have examined rocky fragments that have come across Mars.”