Feed aggregator
A Stranger in Our Midst?
- Perseverance Home
- Science
- News and Features
- Multimedia
- Mars Missions
- Mars Home
Written by Candice Bedford, Research Scientist at Purdue University
Oct. 1, 2025
During the rover’s recent investigation of the bedrock at “Vernodden,” Perseverance encountered an unusually shaped rock about 80 centimeters across (about 31 inches) called “Phippsaksla.” This rock was identified as a target of interest based on its sculpted, high-standing appearance that differed from that of the low-lying, flat and fragmented surrounding rocks. Last week, Perseverance targeted Phippsaksla with the SuperCam instrument revealing that it is high in iron and nickel. This element combination is usually associated with iron-nickel meteorites formed in the core of large asteroids, suggesting that this rock formed elsewhere in the solar system.
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the unusually shaped rock, “Phippsaksla,” in the distance at upper left, which is suspected to be a meteorite because of its high iron and nickel content. Perseverance captured the image using its Left Mastcam-Z camera, one of a pair of cameras located high on the rover’s mast, on Sept. 2, 2025 — Sol 1612, or Martian day 1,612 of the Mars 2020 mission — at the local mean solar time of 12:45:41. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
This is not the first time a rover has encountered an exotic rock on Mars. The Curiosity rover has identified many iron-nickel meteorites across its traverse in Gale crater including the 1-meter wide (about 39 inches) “Lebanon” meteorite back in 2014 and the “Cacao” meteorite spotted in 2023. Both Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, also found iron-nickel meteorites during their missions. As such, it has been somewhat unexpected that Perseverance had not seen iron-nickel meteorites within Jezero crater, particularly given its similar age to Gale crater and number of smaller impact craters suggesting that meteorites did fall on the crater floor, delta, and crater rim throughout time. Now, on the outside of the crater, atop bedrock known to have formed from impact processes in the past, Perseverance has potentially found one. Due to the exotic composition of this rock, more investigation by the team needs to be done to confirm its status as a meteorite. But if this rock is deemed to be a meteorite Perseverance can at long last add itself to the list of Mars rovers who have investigated the fragments of rocky visitors to Mars.
-
Want to read more posts from the Perseverance team?
-
Want to learn more about Perseverance’s science instruments?
Article
1 month ago
5 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4661-4667: Peaking Into the Hollows
Article
2 months ago
1 min read The Ancient Mars Variety Show
Article
2 months ago
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA All Mars Resources
Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…
Rover Basics
Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…
Mars Exploration: Science Goals
The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…
Mars Perseverance Rover
The Mars Perseverance rover is the first leg the Mars Sample Return Campaign’s interplanetary relay team. Its job is to…
A Stranger in Our Midst?
- Perseverance Home
- Science
- News and Features
- Multimedia
- Mars Missions
- Mars Home
Written by Candice Bedford, Research Scientist at Purdue University
Oct. 1, 2025
During the rover’s recent investigation of the bedrock at “Vernodden,” Perseverance encountered an unusually shaped rock about 80 centimeters across (about 31 inches) called “Phippsaksla.” This rock was identified as a target of interest based on its sculpted, high-standing appearance that differed from that of the low-lying, flat and fragmented surrounding rocks. Last week, Perseverance targeted Phippsaksla with the SuperCam instrument revealing that it is high in iron and nickel. This element combination is usually associated with iron-nickel meteorites formed in the core of large asteroids, suggesting that this rock formed elsewhere in the solar system.
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the unusually shaped rock, “Phippsaksla,” in the distance at upper left, which is suspected to be a meteorite because of its high iron and nickel content. Perseverance captured the image using its Left Mastcam-Z camera, one of a pair of cameras located high on the rover’s mast, on Sept. 2, 2025 — Sol 1612, or Martian day 1,612 of the Mars 2020 mission — at the local mean solar time of 12:45:41. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASUThis is not the first time a rover has encountered an exotic rock on Mars. The Curiosity rover has identified many iron-nickel meteorites across its traverse in Gale crater including the 1-meter wide (about 39 inches) “Lebanon” meteorite back in 2014 and the “Cacao” meteorite spotted in 2023. Both Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, also found iron-nickel meteorites during their missions. As such, it has been somewhat unexpected that Perseverance had not seen iron-nickel meteorites within Jezero crater, particularly given its similar age to Gale crater and number of smaller impact craters suggesting that meteorites did fall on the crater floor, delta, and crater rim throughout time. Now, on the outside of the crater, atop bedrock known to have formed from impact processes in the past, Perseverance has potentially found one. Due to the exotic composition of this rock, more investigation by the team needs to be done to confirm its status as a meteorite. But if this rock is deemed to be a meteorite Perseverance can at long last add itself to the list of Mars rovers who have investigated the fragments of rocky visitors to Mars.
-
Want to read more posts from the Perseverance team?
-
Want to learn more about Perseverance’s science instruments?
Article
1 month ago
5 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4661-4667: Peaking Into the Hollows
Article
2 months ago
1 min read The Ancient Mars Variety Show
Article
2 months ago
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA All Mars Resources
Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…
Rover Basics
Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…
Mars Exploration: Science Goals
The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…
Mars Perseverance Rover
The Mars Perseverance rover is the first leg the Mars Sample Return Campaign’s interplanetary relay team. Its job is to…
What Causes Cancer? Maud Slye Thought She Had the answer and a Way to Stop It
After studying mice in the 1910s, Maude Slye concluded that vulnerability to cancer was hereditary. She thought she had a solution to eliminate it, but she made some crucial mistakes
Chinese Expedition Reveals Unexplored Section of Mysterious Arctic Ocean Ridge
Oceanographers hope to find otherworldly ecosystems at hydrothermal vents on the Arctic seafloor
The Rust That Could Reveal Alien Life
Iron rusts. On Earth, this common chemical reaction often signals the presence of something far more interesting than just corroding metal for example, living microorganisms that make their living by manipulating iron atoms. Now researchers argue these microbial rust makers could provide some of the most promising biosignatures for detecting life on Mars and the icy moons of the outer Solar System.
The Search for Worlds in the Making
Astronomers have deployed a survey with the most memorable and tasty acronym in astrophysics - SPAM, The Search for Protoplanets with Aperture Masking - to catch planets in the act of being born. Using Keck Observatory's most powerful instruments, researchers have just captured the closest ever view of a protoplanetary disk 400 light years away, revealing a telltale gap and clumpy structures that hint at a world coalescing from interstellar dust.
The Universe is Decelerating and Standard Candles Aren't So Standard According to a New Study
A new study argues that the Universe is decelerating, based on a correlation between the brightness of Type-Ia supernovae and the age of their host galaxies.
NASA Patent Remix Challenge
NASA’s Technology Transfer Office invites entrepreneurs, innovators, and creative thinkers to apply NASA’s patented technologies to practical applications. Participants will select an existing NASA patent and develop a business or product concept that will be evaluated based on value proposition, business model viability, development feasibility, and quality of presentation. Entries should clearly demonstrate creativity, feasibility, and a compelling rationale for how the concept could create real-world impact.
Award: $13,000 in total prizes
Open Date: October 6, 2025
Close Date: December 15, 2025
For more information, visit: https://nasapatentremixchallenge.org/
NASA Patent Remix Challenge
NASA’s Technology Transfer Office invites entrepreneurs, innovators, and creative thinkers to apply NASA’s patented technologies to practical applications. Participants will select an existing NASA patent and develop a business or product concept that will be evaluated based on value proposition, business model viability, development feasibility, and quality of presentation. Entries should clearly demonstrate creativity, feasibility, and a compelling rationale for how the concept could create real-world impact.
Award: $13,000 in total prizes
Open Date: October 6, 2025
Close Date: December 15, 2025
For more information, visit: https://nasapatentremixchallenge.org/
Brazil gears up to harness ESA’s Biomass data
As the COP30 climate conference gets underway in Brazil, the world’s attention is once again drawn to the plight of the Amazon – the planet’s largest and most vital rainforest. With the European Space Agency’s Earth Explorer Biomass satellite now in orbit, ESA is helping Brazil prepare to transform this new mission’s groundbreaking data into actionable knowledge for protecting the rainforest and confronting climate change.
It's Time to Give the Moon Its Own Time
Tracking time is one of those things that seems easy, until you really start to get into the details of what time actually is. We define a second as 9,192,631,770 oscillations of a cesium atom. However, according to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, mass slows down these oscillations, making time appear to move more slowly for objects in large gravity wells. This distinction becomes critical as we start considering how to keep track of time between two separate gravity wells of varying strengths, such as on the Earth and the Moon. A new paper by Pascale Defraigne at the Royal Observatory of Belgium and her co-authors discusses some potential frameworks for solving that problem and settles on using the new Lunar Coordinate Time (TCL) suggested by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Ancient silver goblet preserves oldest known image of cosmic creation
Ancient silver goblet preserves oldest known image of cosmic creation
Scientists Might Soon Predict the Ocean’s Rogue Waves
An 18-year dataset from the North Sea reveals that rogue waves are not freak accidents but particular products of ordinary swells stacking up—an insight that could make prediction possible