"Stone popcorn" discovered on Mars

NASA's Perseverance rover has arrived in the Bright Angel Martian region and has already made an interesting discovery. He discovered unusual white stones, which are also called "popcorn stones". Science Alert writes about this.

According to geologists, as the rover approached the Bright Angel, bright white stones became visible. However, it turned out to be very difficult to get to them. Geologists started moving at the end of January and achieved good results, but then the boulders became larger and more numerous.

"If earlier the rover could cover more than 100 meters in one Martian day, now it could travel only a dozen meters in the same period of time," says Evan Grazer, deputy head of the strategic planning department of Perseverance.

Some of the stones in Bright Angel were filled with spheres, which is why they were nicknamed popcorn stones. Interestingly, there were many ridges on the rocks that looked like mineral veins. On Earth, they appear when water carries minerals through the rock and deposits them there.

Perseverance's main task is to search for traces of ancient life on Mars. In this regard, the rover is exploring the Jezero — Paloozero crater with sediments and other interesting geological features. The Bright Angel region used to have a riverbed flowing into the Jezero crater, which is why the device is located there. This region is distinguished by light rocky outcrops. They can be either sediments or an older rock that was once exposed by the river. Thus, the "stone popcorn" is another evidence that there was once water in the crater.

Source: Vfokuse