- NASA’s Perseverance rover found an 80cm boulder on Mars
- The rock’s shape and size differ from surrounding basaltic terrain, sparking scientific interest
- SuperCam laser analysis detected high iron and nickel
NASA's Perseverance rover came across an 80-centimetre (about 31-inch) boulder on Mars that looked unfamiliar. The rover found the rock while investigating the bedrock at Vernodden, a location on the Red Planet near Jezero Crater that the rover has been exploring. The rover took the image using its Left Mastcam-Z camera on September 19, 2025.
In a blog titled A Stranger in Our Midst?, NASA stated that the rock has been named "Phippsaksla".
Scientists were baffled after the discovery, and last week, the mission team took a closer look at the rock and found that the shape and size were different from the surrounding terrain.
"This element combination is usually associated with iron-nickel meteorites formed in the core of large asteroids, suggesting that this rock formed elsewhere in the solar system," NASA said.
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What makes Phippsaksla different?
According to the early analysis with the rover's SuperCam laser and spectrometers, a high concentration of iron and nickel elements was seen in the rock. The elements are rare in native Martian crust. The iron-nickel signature suggests the rock is a meteorite that fell to Mars sometime in the distant past.
Measuring roughly the size of a small desk, the rock stands out in the region surrounded by low-lying, flat and fragmented rocks.
NASA said that more investigation by the team needs to be done to confirm its status as a meteorite.
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This is not the first "alien" rock on Mars
NASA confirmed that the Curiosity rover identified many iron-nickel meteorites in Gale crater, including the 1-metre-wide (about 39 inches) "Lebanon" meteorite in 2014 and the "Cacao" meteorite in 2023.
"It has been somewhat unexpected that Perseverance had not seen iron-nickel meteorites within Jezero crater, particularly given its similar age to Gale crater and number of smaller impact craters suggesting that meteorites did fall on the crater floor, delta, and crater rim throughout time," said NASA.
"Now, on the outside of the crater, atop bedrock known to have formed from impact processes in the past, Perseverance has potentially found one."
