(PCM) NASA researchers and personnel got a big surprise recently when a mysterious rock made its’ appearance in front of the Mars Opportunity rover.
The incident occurred last week, in which the mysterious Martian rock that resembles a jelly doughnut made its’ surprise appearance in front of the rover which hasn’t moved in about a month while waiting for better weather conditions on the planet.
Researchers are fascinated by the rock because the more they study it, the more they find that it has properties that they have never seen before. NASA has taken images of both the doughnut part of the formation, as well as, the jelly and are continuing to conduct additional tests. Thus far, the researchers claim ‘It’s very high in sulphur, it’s very high in magnesium, it’s got twice as much manganese as we’ve ever seen in anything on Mars. I don’t know what any of this means. We’re completely confused, and everyone in the team is arguing and fighting (over what it means).”
The researchers have named the target “Pinnacle Island” and were shocked with it first appeared. ‘It looks white around the edge in the middle and there’s a low spot in the centre that’s dark red – it looks like a jelly doughnut.’ A photo taken on Sol 3540 (January 8th, or the 3,540th Martian solar day since the Opportunity rover landed) shows a rock that wasn’t visible in previous photos taken on Sol 3536.
It is almost as if the rock formation appeared out of thin air. Some are claiming that it is the result of a meteoroid impact with debris that happened to land next to the rover or that it was a rock that was caught in the wheels of the rover that has just lodged itself free. Either way it is definitely fascinating.
