NASA's Perseverance rover has made an unprecedented discovery while exploring the Jezero Crater on Mars that could give scientists insight into whether life possibly existed there ages ago.
The rover discovered a striking light-colored rock among the dark rocks near it while passing through Neretva Vallis on Mars, an area that was once the channel of an ancient river that drained into Jezero Crater.
“Sometimes, you see some weird things in the Martian landscape, and the team thinks, 'Oh, let's go there,'” said Katie Stack Morgan, deputy project scientist for NASA's Mars 2020 mission.
“It was like the textbook definition of [chasing] “It was a shiny, bright thing because it was so bright and white,” he said.
NASA described the rock as “a rock unlike any other seen on Mars before.”
What is the secret of this amazing rock?
This strange stone, called 'Atoko Point', was about 18 inches wide and 14 inches high, and had spots and was clearly light in colour.
It was seen among dark rocks on the 'Mount Washburn' hill.
“The diversity of textures and structures at Mount Washburn was an exciting discovery for the team, as these rocks represent a large collection of geologic gifts brought from the crater rim and possibly beyond,” Brad Garcinski of Western Washington University, who co-leads the current Perseverance mission, said in a statement.
Deeper examination of the rock using the rover's instruments revealed it was likely anorthosite, a type of rock commonly found in some mountain ranges on the Moon and Earth.
However, it had not been detected on Mars before.
The boulder is composed of the minerals pyroxene and feldspar, leading some scientists to speculate that its origin may have been linked to magma that originated beneath the surface of Mars and may have been brought to the rim of Jezero Crater over time by erosion, NASA said.
NASA said that all the scientists of Perseverance believe that rocks with similar structure should exist elsewhere on Mars.
Scientists believe that learning about Mars' composition and its past could help them determine whether the planet's current landscape could ever be habitable for humans.
This can also provide important clues about the origin and evolution of life on Earth.