Surprising discovery by NASA's Mars rover

NASA's Perseverance rover has polished a rock on Mars, leading to a unique discovery. 

In October, NASA lost contact with Perseverance on the Red Planet for two weeks after the Sun wedged itself between Mars and Earth. Since then, of course, communications have been restored and the rover has been back at work, bombarding researchers with new discoveries and images.

The robot has also recently been very interesting made a discovery, after grinding a rock in the Jezero crater, as the images revealed that the rock was hiding minerals and sediment. The discovery is particularly significant because it allows researchers to deduce from the sediment when the material was formed and, more importantly, what the climate was like at the time.

Peering inside to look at something no one's ever seen. I've abraded a small patch of this rock to remove the surface layer and get a look underneath. Zeroing in on my next target for #SamplingMars.

More pics here for fellow rock lovers: https://t.co/Ex1QDo3eC2 pic.twitter.com/qfIRs3MYyI

- NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) November 9, 2021

The Perseverance rover is part of NASA's exploration programme. Launched in July last year, the vehicle landed in the Jezero crater in February this year, with the aim of studying the geology and climate history of the body to find evidence of life on the red planet. The researchers believe that billions of years ago there may have been a lake in this area, fed by rivers in the area. In October, the rover found evidence that the Jezero crater was once a with water was a lake full of.