Perseverance Spots 3-Rock Stack on Mars as NASA Points to Wind and Ancient Water
Updated
Updated · Space.com · May 21
Perseverance Spots 3-Rock Stack on Mars as NASA Points to Wind and Ancient Water
10 articles · Updated · Space.com · May 21
May 13 images from Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z showed what looks like three rocks stacked like a sandwich on Mars during the rover’s 1,859th Martian day.
NASA says the formation was likely not deliberately piled but a single rock broken into this shape by long-term wind erosion or exposure to flowing water on ancient Mars.
Those processes matter because they can reveal how the Martian surface changed over hundreds of millions or billions of years and help scientists reconstruct the planet’s past.
Perseverance’s find joins other odd Martian rocks seen by NASA rovers, including sphere-studded, evenly spaced and striped formations that have repeatedly sparked public curiosity.
Beyond wind or ancient rivers, what other natural forces could be sculpting the bizarre rock formations found on Mars?
As evidence of Mars's watery past grows, could its subsurface still hold the key ingredients for life?