Overview
- The boulder, named Phippsaksla, measures roughly 80 centimeters and stands out from Jezero Crater’s typical sedimentary and volcanic terrain.
- High iron and nickel signals from SuperCam’s laser spectroscopy match the composition of rare metallic meteorites derived from differentiated asteroid cores.
- Mastcam-Z imaging first flagged the rock’s metallic tones and sculpted surface, prompting targeted compositional analysis.
- Verification is still underway, and NASA has not announced a decision to drill or cache a sample for potential return to Earth.
- This is the first candidate metallic meteorite identified by Perseverance in Jezero, though earlier rovers on Mars have documented similar finds in other regions.