Mars Rover Adds to Its Strange Rock Collection

Space nerds, brace yourselves: NASA's Perseverance rover has stumbled across a rock. But it's not just any rock on the Martian landscape that has scientists in something of a tizzy, reports Space.com, it's in the shape of a medieval helmet or a Harry Potter-esque sorting hat, depending on your interpretation, and it's made up of spherules. From David Agle, a rep for the Perseverance team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

• "This rock's target name is Horneflya and it's distinctive less because of its hat shape (which looks to me to be generally consistent with the pyramid shape we often see in ... wind-eroded float blocks on the surface of Mars) and more because it's made almost entirely of spherules."

Spherules, for the uninitiated, are "tiny, perfectly shaped spheres," per NDTV, and their origins are a subject of scientific speculation. They can be formed when groundwater passes through sedimentary rocks, through volcanic activity, or chemical weathering. Perseverance is currently surveying the Jezero Crater with an eye on Mars' "wet history," notes USA Today, and captured the photo on Aug. 5. It's the second such rock the rover has found, with the first discovered back in March.