Perseverance Makes a Puzzling New Discovery

By Chelsea Natale, 2027

Published 11/30/2024

On February 18, 2020, NASA launched their newest Mars rover, Perseverance, into space. Perseverance spent the next five months hurtling through space, making her way to Mars’ expansive Jezero Crater. After landing on the Red Planet on July 31, 2020, she has explored the crater (which is 28 miles in diameter), slowly inching her way to the rim and looking for anything to do with life. As late as November 2024, Perseverance is still discovering new information about our next-door planet.

While climbing the rim of Jezero Crater, Perseverance’s cameras caught what looked like white rocks. Her operators, NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, made her detour to explore the strange phenomenon further. Found in “Mist Park,” the white rocks spotted by Perseverance were scattered across a small, elevated area. White-colored rocks are a rarity on Mars, as the planet’s crust is primarily made up of dark minerals like olivine and pyroxene. On Earth, these rock types are common due to plate tectonics, or the movement of Earth's tectonic plates; however, Mars does not experience tectonic plate-induced earthquakes (or mars-quakes, for that matter), so such rocks are not brought up to the planet's surface. 

To learn more, NASA scientists used Perseverance’s wide range of tools such as its robotic arm to analyze the rocks’ composition. Unfortunately, the rocks were too small for a detailed inspection using the rover’s robotic arm. Aside from the composition of the mysterious white rocks, it is still a mystery of how they ended up on “Mist Park” in the first place. Scientists suspect the rocks may have been a part of erosion with softer material slowly eroding away. Scientists also suggest that the rocks tumbled down from a larger area located higher on Jezero Crater. Even if the origin of the mysterious white rocks remains unknown, Perseverance’s discovery has still helped scientists further understand the complex history of Mars.

As Perseverance continues climbing the rim of Jezero Crater, she will continue her mission of looking for any signs of life on the Red Planet.