Mysterious 'Doughnut' Shaped Rock Found on Surface of Mars, Pic Goes Viral

An image which has recently surfaced on the internet has been captured by the Mars rover Perseverance and it shows a mysterious doughnut-shaped rock on the red planet’s surface. For those who don’t know, the rover was launched in July 2020 and it continues to explore the planet’s 28-mile-wide Jezero Crater for signs of microbial life, Basically, it collects samples of rock and soil. The object found this time is captured about 100 meters away in the delta of the Jezero Crater by the SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager.

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In the image, the rock looks dusty on one end and greyish on another. Here, have a look at the viral image:

As of now, the Perseverance team has not made the rover go closer to the doughnut-shaped rock in order to examine it. As per Jim Rice, an assistant research scientist in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, the rock’s exact makeup and origins are unknown.

In a report by CNN, Rice said, “I can’t say with absolute, 100% certainty it’s not a meteorite, but I think it’s highly unlikely.” He further added, “The reason I say that is because, this region we’re in, we see a lot of rocks that have these kind of hollowed-out interiors.”

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Meanwhile, earlier, rover took pictures of rippled rocks that provide the most robust evidence yet of ancient water waves on the red planet. These peculiar rocks looked similar to the undulating patterns left behind by receding tides on a beach. Mission scientists believe they were possibly created billions of years ago by waves rippling on the surface of a shallow lake.