NASA's Perseverance Rover Finds 4-Billion-Year-Old 'Silver Mountain' Rock on Mars

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Finds 4-Billion-Year-Old ‘Silver Mountain’ Rock on Mars

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of its 26th collected rock sample, “Silver Mountain,” using its onboard Sample Caching System Camera (CacheCam), located inside the rover underbelly. It looks down into the top of a sample tube to take close-up pictures of the sampled material and the tube as it’s prepared for sealing and storage. This image was acquired on Jan. 28, 2025 — sol 1401, or Martian day 1,401 of the Mars 2020 mission — at the local mean solar time of 18:49:01. NASA/JPL-Caltech Photo Source : NASA

A rock the size of a grape has caught the attention of NASA scientists exploring Mars. The Perseverance rover, NASA’s car-sized robot currently driving across the Red Planet, found this special sample while climbing out of a massive crater. Scientists named it “Silver Mountain,” and it’s unlike any rock they’ve found on Mars before. “My 26th sample has textures unlike anything we’ve seen before,” reported the rover’s team, sharing a photo that shows the rock’s unusual surface patterns. The rover found this sample in Jezero Crater, a bowl-shaped dip in Mars’ surface as wide as Los Angeles. Scientists chose this … Continue reading NASA’s Perseverance Rover Finds 4-Billion-Year-Old ‘Silver Mountain’ Rock on Mars