NASA's Perseverance Rover Spots Strange "Zebra Rock" On Mars: "Likely Arrived From..."

This could be "a sign of exciting discoveries to come," the US space agency wrote in a blog post.

NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover recently discovered a strange "zebra rock" on Mars' Jezero crater that's nothing like any rock seen on the Red Planet before. This could be "a sign of exciting discoveries to come," the US space agency wrote in a blog post. The rover captured the images of the black-and-white striped rock earlier this month using a camera mounted high on its mast. The team said that they spotted the rock in the distance "with hints of an unusual texture" in low-resolution images while driving across "unremarkable pebbly terrain". 

According to the statement, the rock, which scientists dubbed "Freya Castle", has a never-before-seen texture. "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," NASA wrote. 

The agency said the funky-looking rock is around 20 cm across, and has a striking pattern with alternating black and white stripes. It is a loose stone that is clearly different from the underlying bedrock, NASA said, adding that it "likely arrived from someplace else, perhaps having rolled downhill from a source higher up".