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NASA’s Perseverance rover has stumbled throughout a curious, volcano-shaped rock on the floor of Mars that appears somewhat like a weathered battle helmet.
Captured by the rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument on Aug. 5, 2025, the rock shows a pointed peak and pitted nodular texture that evokes a picture of armor cast centuries in the past. On Earth, comparable nodule textures can type by way of chemical weathering, mineral precipitation and even volcanic processes. Perseverance discovered an identical rock in March 2025.
And it’s these spherules that have scientists intrigued. “This hat-shaped rock is composed of spherules. This rock’s target name is Horneflya and it’s distinctive less because of its hat shape (which looks to me to be generally consistent with the pyramid shape we often see in of wind-eroded float blocks on the surface of Mars) and more because it’s made almost entirely of spherules,” David Agle, a spokesperson for the Perseverance team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Space.com.
Scientists think that in some rocks seen on Mars, these spherules form when groundwater passed through pores in sedimentary rocks. But they’re not sure if all of them formed this way; Perseverance’s science team will have its work cut out for it analyzing more rocks to search for answers to this Martian geology mystery and other burning Red Planet questions.
The Mastcam-Z instrument, a pair of zoom-capable cameras on Perseverance’s neck-like mast, allows scientists to capture high-resolution stereo images and spot unusual features like this spherule-covered “helmet” rock from a distance.
Perseverance has uncovered a rising gallery of wierd rock shapes, from donut-like meteorites to avocado-like stones. These forms of photos are examples of a phenomenon referred to as pareidolia, which describes the human mind’s tendency to impose a well-recognized sample on in any other case random visible information — whether or not that is a face within the clouds, a rabbit within the moon, or a medieval helmet on the Martian floor.
For now, the helmet rock stays a compelling snapshot of Martian historical past. Features like this assist scientists piece collectively the Red Planet‘s environmental historical past, displaying how wind, water and inside processes might have sculpted the panorama over billions of years.
Perseverance is presently exploring the northern rim of the Jezero Crater, having efficiently accomplished a difficult ascent to the crest referred to as “Lookout Hill” late final 12 months.
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