"Perseverance used its SuperCam instrument to measure the rock's composition by heating a small section of the surface with a powerful laser. This revealed that Phippsaksla has an exceptionally high iron and nickel content. This is unusual since Perseverance has not found a single rock with such high metal content anywhere else in Jezero crater."
"'This element combination is usually associated with iron-nickel meteorites formed in the core of large asteroids, suggesting that this rock formed elsewhere in the solar system.'"
"'At some point in time, the entire Martian surface has been shaped by impacts,' he explained. 'Meteors are expected on Mars on a daily basis; we don't know the number precisely, but there should be lots"
Perseverance discovered an 80 centimetre rock named Phippsaksla near the rim of Jezero crater. Laser analysis by the SuperCam instrument found exceptionally high iron and nickel content in the rock. No other rock in Jezero has shown similarly high metal content. The element combination matches iron-nickel meteorites formed in cores of large asteroids, implying an origin elsewhere in the solar system. Jezero crater is a former lake basin of particular astrobiological interest. Perseverance observed Phippsaksla after climbing into the Vernodden region on the crater rim. Meteor impacts shape the Martian surface frequently, but high-metal meteorites are rarer.
Read at Mail Online
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