NASA’s Perseverance rover has added to its trove of curious finds, as the space agency published a photo of a rock on the surface of Mars that looks like a centuries-old helmet.
The rock has a pointed peak, a flared “brim,” and textures that could lead reasonable observers to compare it to a witch’s hat or a tent.
The texture is formed by spherules on the rock. Similar formations found on Earth are created through chemical weathering, mineral precipitation or volcanic processes, according to Space.com.
The image, taken Aug. 5 by the rover’s Left Mastcam-Z camera, was chosen as the photo of the week for week 234 of its mission on Mars.
“This rock’s target name is Horneflya and it’s distinctive less because of its hat shape (which looks to me to be generally consistent with the pyramid shape we often see in of wind-eroded float blocks on the surface of Mars) and more because it’s made almost entirely of spherules,” David Agle, a spokesperson for the Perseverance team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told the space news outlet.
It is not the first time the rover has found a spherule-covered rock, having sent back a photo of a studded rock in March.
Camera key to Mars discoveries
The Left Mastcam-Z camera on the Perseverance can capture panoramic color and 3D images of the planet’s surface, according to NASA, allowing scientists and observers to see Martian features more clearly.
The rover is searching for signs of ancient microbial life as a part of a larger undertaking to understand the habitability of Mars.
The helmet rock provides scientist a clue on what Mar’s environmental history, according to Space.com.
Perseverance was sent to survey Jezero Crater to study the “wet history” of the Red Planet. The rover completed the climb to the summit of the crater in December 2024, three years after landing.
“Conceivably, microbial life could have lived in Jezero during one or more of these wet times,” NASA says on the home page for the mission. “If so, signs of their remains might be found in lakebed or shoreline sediments.”
Perseverance’s research is intended to pave the way for humans to reach Mars in the years ahead under NASA’s Artemis program, which will begin with astronauts returning to the moon to establish a base of operations. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has also expressed his vision of launching uncrewed trips to the Red Planet before humans reach it ‒ perhaps as early as 2028.
Contributing: Eric Lagatta – USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASA’s Perseverance rover makes another strange finding: See photo
