Space and Physics
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NASA’s Perseverance has spotted a weird-looking rock on Mars and got down to investigating it by shooting it with its laser! We know from a few weeks ago that the laser doesn’t go pew pew on Mars, but snap snap (check the incredible audio recording here)!
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.So what’s the secret behind this rock? Well, we don’t know yet. And it’s not like Perseverance is just an exciting three-year-old having discovered something cool. The rover is currently on standby as NASA’s ingenuity, the Mars Helicopter, is being lowered from its belly onto the ground.
The team discusses on Twitter that they have three main hypotheses to explain why this rock looks like this. It could be due to just weathering effects. Alternatively, it could be a meteorite that hit Mars. The third hypothesis is even more exciting: it could be a piece of Mars that was through up into the air by an ancient impact and landed back in Jezero crater, the area the rover is studying.
The scientists will hopefully found out some answers soon when Perseverance can start exploring again.
