Mysterious stones have been found on Mars

NASA’s Perseverance Robot Finds Strange Purple Rocks on Mars IFLScience. The spacecraft is performing its mission in an area called Jezero Crater, observing rocks of unusual colors and diversity almost everywhere in the area.

Researchers do not yet know what the purple paint could be and how it evolved.

Anne OllilaA geochemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory National Geographic He said the purple substance forms a thin, smooth layer on some stones and can sometimes be seen in some spots. Experts believe that by evaluating the chemical composition of the material, they can better understand the past of Mars.

Perseverance isn’t the first Mars to discover purple rocks, in 2016 Curiosity stumbled upon similar material at the foot of a mountain called Mount Sharp. NASA researchers at the time found that different shades indicated a diverse composition. Curiosity discovered strangely colored stones in a place less covered by reddish Martian dust. Perseverance also showed a purple gradient in a relatively dust-free region, however, the present material differs from what Curiosity documented.

Ollila and colleagues analyzed the fuzzy layer with a tool called the Supercam persistence. Based on initial findings, the purple mantle is softer and chemically different from the underlying rock layer, and may be rich in hydrogen and magnesium. It is possible that water also played a role in the formation of the purple patches: the rocks may have been of volcanic origin and interacted with the water after their formation.

Most researchers believe that Jezero Crater was once a huge lake in which even primitive life forms could exist. One goal of persistence is to determine the effects of previous potential microorganisms.