Perseverance Finds a Field of Light Rocks on Ancient Mars

After six months exploring a region of ancient rock beyond Jezero Crater's western rim, NASA's Perseverance rover has come across a field of light-toned rocks scattered across the surface.

On a planet covered in dark basaltic rock, light stones are an unusual sight. The rover's science team wants to know what they are and how they got there.

What the Rocks Reveal

Data from Perseverance shows that many of these rocks are an igneous type called gabbro. They are rich in iron and magnesium minerals. On Earth, such rocks form when magma cools and crystallizes slowly deep underground. That suggests these pieces came from deep within Mars, not from the surface.

How Did They Get Here?

The rover has spent the past week examining a patch of possible bedrock poking through the loose soil and boulders. Initial images show a mix of light and dark angular rock fragments, a texture geologists call a breccia.

One idea: the light-toned boulders may have eroded out of this breccia. Breccias often form during violent events — when rocks are shattered and moved, then cemented back together. Similar layers outside Jezero have been linked to ancient asteroid impacts. An impact, maybe even the one that created Jezero Crater itself, could have dug up these deep rocks and brought them to the surface.

Perseverance will keep studying the site to find out. The answer, as the mission puts it, will take time and more data from the rover's instruments.

• breccia
• gabbro
• Jezero crater
• Mars
• NASA
• Perseverance