Perseverance Explorer Finds Popcorn-like Rocks On Mars

Display of rocks in the Bright Angel area (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA The Mars Perseverance rover arrived at Bright Angel, an area with bright, wooden rocks, on June 17. Upon arrival at Bright Angel, Perseverance found strange rock.

After exploring the large rock on Mount Wrypto, Perseverance walked north and parked in front of the area with bright rocks, namely Bright Angel. This rover deliberately stopped for a while before continuing the journey.

This is a rare opportunity because NASA has never seen Bright Angel's territory in close proximity. Therefore, Perseverance stopped long enough to take some close-up images to be observed.

"This gave the team our first close-up view of the rocks that formed the exposure to 'Bright Malays', so Perseverance stopped taking pictures, before driving west towards a bigger seat," NASA said.

The team observing Perseverance has received a close-up image from the rock area of Bright Angel. A geologist from NASA's science team, who has seen a closed-up image of his rocks, is amazed by the peculiar texture of his rocks.

NASA explains that these bright rocks are filled with sharp bulges that are similar to minerals at the base of the fan. In addition, some of the solid rocks are in the form of small balls. According to experts, these rocks are similar to popcorn.

"We jokingly refer to it as a texture like 'popcorn'. Overall, these characteristics show that groundwater flows through these rocks after formation," NASA explained.

With this immortalized close-up image, the team will consider taking samples of its surface or not. For now, Perseverance's focus is still exploring a site on Mars called Serpentine Rapids.