August M
Images published by NASA show the object towering above its surroundings in Jezero Crater, where Perseverance continues its long-term search for signs of ancient life.
Five years into its mission, NASA’s Perseverance rover has identified one of its most intriguing finds yet: an oddly shaped, metallic-looking boulder that may have crashed onto Mars from deep space.
While driving through the Vernodden area, Perseverance encountered an 80-centimetre rock unlike the basaltic terrain around it, WPtech reported.
The boulder, now nicknamed Phippsaksla, stands out due to its sculpted, pitted surface — features often shaped by exposure to intense heat and erosion.
Scientists quickly turned to the rover’s SuperCam instrument to examine its composition. Initial results suggest unusually high levels of iron and nickel.
Meteorite origins?
According to WPtech, those chemical signatures strongly resemble metallic meteorites, fragments of ancient asteroid cores forged in the early Solar System.
Mars has yielded similar finds in past missions, but Perseverance had yet to spot one — a rarity researchers expected would eventually be corrected.
Next steps for analysis
NASA scientists may instruct the rover to drill into the rock and collect samples for on-board testing, WPtech noted.
Perseverance is the first rover capable of building a physical archive of Martian samples intended — one day — for return to Earth.
However, the rover will not transport them itself.
NASA’s original Mars Sample Return programme stalled as budget estimates and timelines drifted far beyond expectations.
The rover’s broader journey
Since landing in February 2021, Perseverance has crossed ancient lakebeds and documented rock formations, volcanic layers and possible environments once capable of supporting life.
The rover has also set a record for the greatest distance travelled on another planet, continuing to push farther into terrain shaped by water billions of years ago.
Its unexpected encounter with Phippsaksla adds yet another chapter to one of NASA’s most ambitious surface missions.
Sources: WPtech; NASA
