NASA’s Perseverance rover has stumbled throughout a curious, volcano-shaped rock on the floor of Mars that appears somewhat like a weathered battle helmet.
Captured by the rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument on Aug. 5, 2025, the rock shows a pointed peak and pitted nodular texture that evokes a picture of armor solid centuries in the past. On Earth, comparable nodule textures can type via chemical weathering, mineral precipitation and even volcanic processes. Perseverance discovered an analogous rock in March 2025.
And it is these spherules which have scientists intrigued. “This hat-shaped rock consists of spherules. This rock’s goal identify is Horneflya and it is distinctive much less due to its hat form (which appears to be like to me to be typically in step with the pyramid form we regularly see in of wind-eroded float blocks on the floor of Mars) and extra as a result of it is made nearly totally of spherules,” David Agle, a spokesperson for the Perseverance staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, instructed Area.com.
Scientists suppose that in some rocks seen on Mars, these spherules type when groundwater handed via pores in sedimentary rocks. However they don’t seem to be positive if all of them shaped this manner; Perseverance’s science staff can have its work minimize out for it analyzing extra rocks to seek for solutions to this Martian geology thriller and different burning Pink Planet questions.
The Mastcam-Z instrument, a pair of zoom-capable cameras on Perseverance’s neck-like mast, permits scientists to seize high-resolution stereo photos and spot uncommon options like this spherule-covered “helmet” rock from a distance.
Perseverance has uncovered a rising gallery of wierd rock shapes, from donut-like meteorites to avocado-like stones. Some of these photos are examples of a phenomenon generally known as pareidolia, which describes the human mind’s tendency to impose a well-known sample on in any other case random visible knowledge — whether or not that is a face within the clouds, a rabbit within the moon, or a medieval helmet on the Martian floor.
For now, the helmet rock stays a compelling snapshot of Martian historical past. Options like this assist scientists piece collectively the Pink Planet’s environmental historical past, displaying how wind, water and inner processes could have sculpted the panorama over billions of years.
Perseverance is at present exploring the northern rim of the Jezero Crater, having efficiently accomplished a difficult ascent to the crest generally known as “Lookout Hill” late final yr.
