A Striped Surprise - NASA Science
science.nasa.gov
Last week, team scientists and the internet alike were amazed when Perseverance spotted a black-and-white striped rock unlike any seen on Mars before. Is this a sign of exciting discoveries to come?

The science team thinks that this rock has a texture unlike any seen in Jezero Crater before, and perhaps all of Mars. Our knowledge of its chemical composition is limited, but early interpretations are that igneous and/or metamorphic processes could have created its stripes. Since Freya Castle is a loose stone that is clearly different from the underlying bedrock, it has likely arrived here from someplace else, perhaps having rolled downhill from a source higher up. This possibility has us excited, and we hope that as we continue to drive uphill, Perseverance will encounter an outcrop of this new rock type so that more detailed measurements can be acquired.

    • SpecialSetOfSieves@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      For God’s sake, stop it with the conspiracy theories. Trace Gas Orbiter would absolutely not miss the, well, methane emission, from a single baby cow, let alone an adult specimen worthy of being prepared as wagyu. Everyone knows that a Japanese master chef would quit (or worse…) before disgracing himself thus. He would never abandon a thickly-marbled specimen on a great big windy crater rim like this.

      This is Mars. If you want your vulgar gyudon, there’s plenty of that on the mad blue planet next door. Martian wagyu should be part of the finest sukiyaki, to be eaten in formal dress, in deeply contemplative silence.

      … I should add - if you can get a sample of this rock for us, we’ll even let you eat part of it. It might be a bit salty, but you can be pretty sure Martian beef is nitrate-free…