NASA Robot Finds Something That Could Be Made by Aliens

NASA's alien life-hunting robot tried to grind a rock on Mars and discovered something strange inside.

In an area called the Serpentine Rapids of Mars, NASA's alien-life-hunting rover Perseverance has been trying to chip away at one of the mysterious boulders of a red-rock outcrop called Wallace Butte .

The 5cm diameter abrasion plate revealed a striking white, black and green patch inside.

"One of the biggest surprises for the exploration team was the presence of dull green spots within the abrasive plate , including dark cores with faint, pale green borders," said NASA's Perseverance mission operations team.

Strange green features appear in the photo sent back by NASA robot from the red planet - (Photo: NASA).

Writing on its homepage, NASA explains that on Earth, red rocks and red soils often get their color from oxidized iron (Fe 3+), which is the form of iron that gives our blood its red color and also gives rusty red color to iron and iron-containing alloys.

Green spots like those seen in the abrasion marks at Wallace Butte are commonly found in sedimentary rocks made from ancient red soils on Earth.

This green color is created when liquid water percolates through sediment before it solidifies into rock, triggering a chemical reaction that converts oxidized iron into its reduced form (Fe 2+).

Importantly, on Earth, bacteria sometimes participate in this iron reduction reaction.

There is a second possibility, also involving life: The green spots could be the result of decomposition of organic matter — be it plants, animals or microorganisms — that creates localized reducing conditions.

Additionally, interactions between sulfur and iron can also create iron-reducing conditions without the involvement of microorganisms.

Unfortunately, the tight space prevented NASA's alien life hunter from getting his arm — which was holding expensive equipment like SHERLOC and PIXL — close to the green spots in the abrasion array.

Therefore, the composition of these blobs remains a mystery.

However, the team will continue to look for similar interesting and surprising features in other rocks.

Perseverance is currently undertaking a risky journey to climb to the rim of the giant impact crater Jezero Crater, which may have been an ancient river delta when the neighboring planet had water like Earth.

Jezero Crater is the area where the rover landed in 2021, beginning its hunt for traces of alien life that NASA believes still exists or at least once existed on Mars.

If successful, Perseverance will officially begin its exploration of a new land.

In addition to Perseverance, NASA also owns another life-hunting robot on the red planet, Curiosity, operating in Gale Crater.