{"id":40514,"date":"2025-04-22T07:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T07:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/40514\/"},"modified":"2025-04-22T07:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T07:48:08","slug":"alien-remains-nasas-perseverance-rover-spots-skull-shaped-structure-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/40514\/","title":{"rendered":"Alien remains? Nasa&#8217;s Perseverance rover spots skull-shaped structure on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Untitled-design-2025-04-20T122752-114.jpg\" alt=\"Alien remains? Nasa's Perseverance rover spots skull-shaped structure on Mars\" title=\"Nasa photo\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/> Nasa\u2019s Perseverance rover has come across a bizarre find on Mars, a rock shaped like a skull that seems to defy its surroundings. <br \/>Spotted on 11 April while the rover was exploring Witch Hazel Hill, the rock, now called \u201cSkull hill,\u201d sits on a slope in Jezero Crater\u2014a massive 28-mile-wide area believed to have once been a lake.<br \/> What makes the rock stand out is its appearance. Unlike the surrounding light-toned, dusty terrain, Skull Hill is dark, jagged, and full of tiny pits. \u201cIt looks like it doesn\u2019t belong there,\u201d said Margaret Deahn, a Purdue University Ph.D student working with Nasa, as quoted by New York Post.<br \/> She explained that the rock could be a type of \u201cfloat\u201d\u2014a term used for rocks that have been moved from their original location, possibly due to erosion, a meteorite strike, or other powerful natural forces. This means Skull Hill might not have formed where it now sits.<br \/> At first, the team even thought it might be a meteorite. But a chemical analysis using the rover\u2019s SuperCam, a laser-based tool, showed it lacked the high iron and nickel content typical of space rocks.<br \/> Another theory is that it\u2019s an igneous rock, formed by cooled lava or magma, which could make it millions\u2014or even billions\u2014of years old.<br \/> Deahn said the team is planning more tests to understand exactly where Skull Hill came from. \u201cWe\u2019re lucky the rover can help us study the chemical makeup of rocks right there on the surface,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nasa\u2019s Perseverance rover has come across a bizarre find on Mars, a rock shaped like a skull that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[18861,790,23061,23060,18863,70,18864,413,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-40514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-jezero-crater","9":"tag-mars","10":"tag-mars-geology","11":"tag-nasa-mars-rover","12":"tag-perseverance-rover","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-skull-hill","15":"tag-space","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114380518472990176","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}