NASA’s Perseverance rover has come across a never-before-seen Martian rock. It is white and sparkling, completely different in characteristics and composition from those that surround it. Scientists have named it “Atoko Point”
The strange rock discovered on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
During his mission within the Jezero craterThe Rover Perseverance from the NASA made an incredibly fascinating discovery on Mars. He has in fact identified one rock totally different from the ones you usually come across. It is indeed white And sparkling, contrasting significantly with the very dark ones surrounding it. For scientists it is the first of its kind and they don’t know how it ended up there, on the edge of the crater where billions of years ago there was a gigantic lake. The rock was found in an area nicknamed “Mount Washburn”, a hill on which several interesting rocks are scattered. But the highlight is represented precisely by the white jewel, which has already been analyzed through the instruments SuperCam And Mastcam-Z.
The analyzes revealed that the strange rock is mainly composed of pyroxene And feldspar, silicate minerals found on Earth, for example, in igneous and metamorphic rocks. The first can be found in basalt and in peridotite, while the second in granite and in andesite. Due to its peculiarity, NASA scientists decided to call the rock “Atoko Point“, like a peak on the Eastern Grand Canyon characterized by a unique composition of Kaibab limestone, dating back to the Permian. Its uniqueness compared to the geological structures that surround it inspired the name for this curious Martian rock.
The “space rock” is 45 centimeters wide and 35 centimeters high: “In terms of the size, shape and arrangement of its mineral grains and crystals – and potentially its chemical composition – Atoko Point is in a league of its own situation,” NASA explained in a press release.
Earthquakes at Campi Flegrei, several seismic structures discovered inside the caldera
Mount Washburn. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
According to researchers, the minerals of the curious rock could be linked to an underground magmatic body that is now exposed on the edge of the Jezero crater, but others do not exclude that it could have been brought to the site from afar, thanks to the waters of the extinct river Neretva Vallis which billions of years ago wound through the heart of the area currently investigated by Perseverance and filled the crater with water.
The rover had to cut across the river bed after several very complicated Martian days (or sols) due to the rugged and rock-strewn terrain. If in the previous weeks he even managed to advance 100 meters a day, while he was headed to an area called Bright Angel to search for carbonate and olivine deposits, in the last phase he managed to advance a maximum of 30 meters. Until the final decision of the engineers to cut a part of the originally planned route, crossing the aforementioned river.
The path of the Perseverance rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Fortunately it was still possible to reach Mount Washburn, dotted with very interesting rocks. “The diversity of textures and compositions of Mount Washburn was an exciting discovery for the team, as these rocks represent a lot of geologic gifts brought down from the crater rim and potentially beyond,” said Dr. Brad Garczynski of Western Washington University in Bellingham, who is leading the rover’s current phase of scientific research.
Among the various rocks studied, they were particularly impressed by Atoko Point, as indicated the first of its kind, although they hope to find other similar ones in the continuation of the mission. Scientists would pay gold to bring pristine rocks from Mars to Earth, but at the moment this goal seems very complicated. Especially after the recent and significant cut in the budget foreseen for the recovery of samples collected by Perseverance, which went from 11 billion dollars to 5-7 billion dollars.
