An object unlike anything else was photographed on Mars

The American space agency NASA has published in the public domain another series of images taken on the surface of Mars by the Perseverance rover. In one of the images, scientists found a black-and-white striped stone, unlike any of the stones previously seen on Mars.

"Is this a sign of exciting discoveries to come?" is the question NASA experts are now asking. The stone, which scientists called the "striped surprise", was discovered in an unremarkable area strewn with small stones.

It attracted the attention of researchers with its texture. The first picture of the "surprise" was taken using a low-resolution Navcam camera. The researchers gave the stone the name "Freya Castle" and decided to conduct a more detailed multispectral observation.

Therefore, the Perseverance rover took the following pictures using a more sensitive high-resolution Mastcam-Z camera. The images were studied by NASA after the rover left the site of the discovery, moving on its way - it climbs the slope of a large hill of the Jezero crater.

From the description provided, it follows that the "Castle of Freya" has a diameter of about 20 centimeters. It differs from all other stones on Mars in its striking pattern - numerous white stripes alternate with black stripes, which is why this stone was jokingly called a "zebra" on the Web.

The Perseverance mission's scientific team has already stated that the rock found has a texture unlike any previously seen rocks in the Ezero crater. Probably, there is no second such stone to be found on the whole of Mars. The nature of this object has not yet been determined.

"Our knowledge of its chemical composition is limited, but preliminary analysis suggests that the bands could have created magmatic or metamorphic processes," the researchers write. "Since Freya's Castle is a loose stone that is clearly different from the underlying bedrock, it probably came here from somewhere else, perhaps rolling down the hill from a spring located above."

Source: SCIENCE