Mars rover discovers mysterious ‘doughnut’ on the Red Planet

A picture taken by NASA’s Mars rover shows a mysterious donut-shaped object on the surface of the Red Planet. Scientists argue about the origin of this Martian miracle.

Launched in July 2020, the Perseverance rover continues to probe the planet’s 28-mile-wide Jezero crater for signs of ancient microbial life, according to NASA. The rover is collecting samples of rocks, rock fragments, and soil (called regolith) for possible return to Earth on a future Martian mission.

According to CNN, the Martian donut is one of the latest objects captured at a distance of about 100 meters in the delta of Lake Lake by the SuperCam remote microvisor, one of the rover’s cameras that helps scientists see what is on the surface of the planet.

The team running Perseverance didn’t get the rover to approach the donut-shaped rock to examine it or take samples, so its exact composition and origin are unknown, said Jim Rice, an assistant researcher at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Studies. Rice, who works on the Mastcam-Z rover’s imaging team, first spotted the rock on June 14.

Scientists have several hypotheses as to where this stone came from, CNN notes.

“I cannot say with absolute, 100% certainty that this is not a meteorite, but I think it is extremely unlikely,” says Jim Rice. “The reason I say this is because in this region that we are in, we see a lot of rocks with this kind of gouged innards.”

According to Rice, the typical rocks in this region are sedimentary sandstones that are probably several billion years old: “They were brought by floods along this great river channel, the Neretva valley – this is the channel that brought all the water, stones and sediments there.” .

The scientist added that the river channel probably carried the donut-shaped stone from another area. The stone is over 25 centimeters (nearly 10 inches) wide, Rice said, but how exactly is unknown.

Another stone may have been embedded in the center of the donut-shaped rock before the weather eroded it, leaving a cavity, he added. The wind can also gradually enlarge any small pits or depressions that were already there. Or the stone could just be weaker in the center.

“Actually, from a scientific point of view, there is nothing special about it,” says Rice.

But Pascal Lee, a senior planetary scientist at the SETI Institute, said he thinks the rock could be a meteorite, given past sightings of meteorites on Mars, as well as the planet’s proximity to the asteroid belt and its ability to store meteorites.

The unusual rock is surrounded by smaller rocks or fragments, “so it could be a meteorite that crashed upon landing,” suggests Pascal Lee. In this case, the donut shape could have been created by weaker materials in the rock that break down as they enter the Martian atmosphere, he added.

It is also possible that the rock was “thrown out of another part of Mars as a result of a collision with a large asteroid,” suggested Pascal Lee. – It’s called an ejection block. … I would recommend that Perseverance deviate from its current course to check it out.”

According to Jim Rice, the rover team has no plans to do so, as it is currently driving Perseverance in the opposite direction, toward the boulders it will eventually sample.

The Martian donut is not the only baked-shaped rock found on the Red Planet. According to Pascal Lee, in 2014, NASA’s Opportunity rover discovered a small rock that is white on the outside and red on the inside, like a jelly donut.