NASA's Perseverance Rover Captures a Strange Rock With Hundreds of 'Martian Blueberries,' Baffles Team
A lot of data is expected from the Perseverance Rover deployed on Mars. Astronomers are hopeful that the vehicle will provide them with new data about the Red Planet. Since late March, the rover has been placed at Broom Point, on the lower slopes of the Witch Hazel Hill area of Mars, stated NASA. From there, the rover has sent some fascinating images to Earth.
The images featured a rock containing many millimeter-sized spheres. The rover initially recorded several light and dark-toned bands on the surface of Broom Point. The vehicle then began abrading and sampling the surface. It got hold of a light-toned bed, from which the rock was ultimately found. The rock was named "St. Pauls Bay" by scientists working on it and was noted to have multiple millimeter-sized, dark gray spheres. Some of the spheres exhibited elliptical shapes, while others displayed angular edges. The latter were possibly pieces of a broken spherule. Experts observed that some spheres also carried pinholes.
This is not the first time astronomers have observed uncanny spheres on Mars. In 2004, an expedition conducted by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity spotted "Martian Blueberries" at Meridiani Planum. Later, the Curiosity Rover found some spherules in the rocks present at the Yellowknife Bay. In both instances, researchers determined that the spherules were concretions. The concretions are developed due to clashes between the groundwater moving in the rock pores. Not all spheres form with this methodology; other kinds of spheres are created due to a sudden cooldown of molten rock droplets formed during an event like a volcanic eruption.
Each of these formation techniques facilitates different trajectories for rock evolution on Mars. Therefore, the recently uncovered spheres are being analyzed to determine the context and origin of the 'St. Pauls Bay' rock. The rock has been determined to be a float rock, which implies that it came from some other region of the planet. At present, the experts are working towards finding a region in the Witch Hazel Hill that exhibits the same features as the ones noted in 'St. Pauls Bay'. "Placing these features in geologic context will be critical for understanding their origin, and determining their significance for the geological history of the Jezero crater rim and beyond," the Perseverance team shared. Results to date have indicated that the rock was possibly connected to one of the dark-toned layers present in the planet.
The Rover mission is experiencing a complete overhaul, stated Space. This situation arose because of cost and schedule issues the rover has been facing for some time. Former NASA administrator Bill Nelson recently announced that two alternate missions associated with this rover have been put on hold for the Trump administration to decide. For each of the missions, the government would have to invest around $300 million. These two mission plans are aimed at bringing extraterrestrial samples home. In accordance with the original plan, the mission is supposed to be launched by 2030, so that they could come back with samples between 2035 and 2039.