NASA’s Perseverance rover has picked up a rocky hitchhiker on Mars.
The rover has picked up a “pet rock” inside its left front wheel that it has been carrying with Perseverance since early February. So far, he has traveled 5.3 miles (8.5 kilometers) in the Perseverance rover as he traverses his home from Jezero Crater to Mars.
“This rock is not doing any damage to the wheel, but throughout its journey (no doubt rugged!), It has clung and made regular appearances in our Left Hazcam images,” said Eleni Ravanis, a collaborating student at NASA’s Perseverance Mission. the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, wrote in an update (opens in a new tab).
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According to Ravanis, Perseverance picked up the small rock from Mars on February 4, the 341st day of the rover (or Sun as the days of Mars are called) on the Red Planet. At the time, Perseverance was exploring a rock formation called “Máaz” that scientists believe was formed by ancient lava flows.
Since then, Perseverance has carried the rock north through its landing site, named after the famous late science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, and then west through the remains. a region called “Kodiak”, the remains of an ancient delta of Jezero. The rover is currently in the middle of what NASA calls its Delta Front campaign and may have drilled its first sedimentary rock from Mars, Ravanis wrote.
Perseverance rover’s mascot rock has seen stunning views of Mars, including this view of “Kodiak,” the remains of an ancient delta, on April 19, 2022. (Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech)
“The pet rock of Perseverance is now a long way from home,” Ravanis wrote. “It is possible that the rock will fall at some point in our future ascent to the edge of the crater. If it does, it will land between rocks that we hope will be very different from itself.”
If that happens, a future Martian geologist might be a little confused about finding the rock so out of place, Ravanis added.
A close-up of the pet rock of the Mars Perseverance rover on its left front wheel on May 26, 2022. (Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech)
Hitchhiking rocks are no stranger to NASA’s Mars rovers.
In 2004, the Spirit rover picked up what Ravanis described as a “potato-sized” rock on its right rear wheel that eventually had to be evacuated. Perseverance’s cousin, the former Curiosity rover that will celebrate its tenth year on Mars in August, has also caught rocks on its own damaged wheels from time to time as it continues its own mission to Mars’ Gale crater.
“While it’s not clear exactly how long these rocks have been stuck together, they tend to go down after a few weeks,” Ravanis wrote. “So Perseverance’s current partner is on track to set hitchhiking records on Mars!”
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him at @tariqjmalik. Follow us on @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.