NASAPersevere: While the helicopter is getting ready, I can't help checking out nearby rocks. This

[soothsayer]

Link to tweet

?s=21


NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover
@NASAPersevere
While the helicopter is getting ready, I can’t help checking out nearby rocks. This odd one has my science team trading lots of hypotheses.

It’s about 6 inches (15 cm) long. If you look closely, you might spot the row of laser marks where I zapped it to learn more.

[lagomorph777]

1. It looks like copper.

Like a copper meteorite.

[Midnight Writer]

2. If it is copper, does the blue color indicate oxidation?

[lagomorph777]

4. Hmmm, now that you mention it, that makes no sense.

No oxygen to speak of on Mars...

So I see why Perseverance is curious.

[blugbox]

3. Looks like copper oxidation

[lagomorph777]

5. No oxygen on Mars...so what does it mean?

Of course, the color might be completely wrong - often these pictures are infrared, or some odd combination of wavelengths.

[blugbox]

6. Yeah either the color is different than what we are seeing...

Or perhaps at some point that rock had been exposed to surface water or a more acidic and humid atmosphere...

Very interesting either way! Hope we eventually get some answers!

[electric_blue68]

7. You think so? Sometimes (and they specify) various Celestial...

photos as taken with infrared, x-ray email c cameras...
But I don't recall any previous Mars surface photos being labeled that way.

Otoh, I may have missed those in the past 🤔 👍

[lagomorph777]

13. Most recent Mars landers didn't even have standard color cameras.

They would roughly approximate color by mixing some odd wavelengths of visible and infrared light.

[soothsayer]

9. Right, all those little blue pebbles around it

Maybe not blue IRL

[denbot]

8. Looks like mudstone with fossilized wormholes to me.

Of course the cavities could be from any number of non biological sources..

[LymphocyteLover]

10. I assume the laser holes are the teeny tiny holes in the middle right part?

not the big holes

[soothsayer]

11. Yes, very straight line of wee holes. I was confused at first

[KY_EnviroGuy]

12. Perhaps similar to hematite-rich "blueberries" discovered by the Opportunity rover...

around 2004 and others by its sister rover Spirit?

See: https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/6944/martian-blueberries/

Early in its mission, the Opportunity rover spotted round, iron-rich concretions nicknamed "blueberries," which constituted one of several different types of evidence suggesting that Mars used to be wet. This (false-color) photo captures an area just 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) across. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/USGS)

We'll see what the instrument's analysis says........

[Treefrog]

14. Puts me in mind of an 'ashtray' i made in kindergarten out of clay, then it was fired.

This kind of looks like it after our cat knocked it off a table.

[Calista241]

15. NASA is amazing. n/t