Mysterious 'striped rocks' discovered on Mars
NASA's Mars rover Perseverance has discovered a black and white striped rock that is believed to be a type of rock never before seen on Mars.
A Striped Surprise - NASA Science
Images from the Mars Perseverance Rover - NASA Mars
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/ZL0_1268_0779507161_206EBY_N0591914ZCAM03974_1100LMJ
Perseverance is currently investigating inside Jezero Crater on Mars, and has been climbing the slope leading to the crater's rim since around August 2024. A photo taken just before the discovery of the rock in question shows that there are rocks of various sizes scattered around the crater.
The rocks discovered are shown below. This photo was taken by a NASA researcher who found a 'rock that hints at an unusual texture' from a photo taken with a low-resolution camera and re-photographed it with a high-resolution Mastcam-Z camera. The rock has been named 'Freya Castle'.
Below is a cropped image of the rock with the color tones adjusted. The entire rock has black and white stripes. According to NASA, this rock shows a texture that has not been found on Mars before. The NASA research team has made the initial guess that 'the stripes are thought to have been generated by
In addition, NASA conducted a popularity vote for the photos taken by Perseverance, and the photo of Freya Castle received many votes and was selected as 'Picture of the Week'. The past 'Picture of the Week' can be viewed at the following link.
Images from the Mars Perseverance Rover - NASA Mars
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/image-of-the-week/
In addition, a large number of photos taken by Perseverance are available to the public at the following link.
Images from the Mars Perseverance Rover - NASA Mars
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/
Related Posts:
in Science, Posted by log1o_hf