On Mars, the Perseverance rover is climbing higher. On its way up, it spotted a striped rock.
(Ha.)
The question is: what is this rock, composition-wise, mineralogical-wise, formation-wise, origin-wise? They didn't stop to check it out, so now they have to speculate.
One thing to note: it's not covered by much dust. So maybe it arrived where it is currently perched recently, geological-wise.
"While driving across unremarkable pebbly terrain, beady-eyed team members spotted a cobble in the distance with hints of an unusual texture in low resolution Navcam images, and gave it the name ‘Freya Castle’. The team planned a multispectral observation using the Mastcam-Z camera in order to get a closer look before driving away. When these data were downlinked a couple days later, after Perseverance had already left the area, it became clear just how unusual it was! ‘Freya Castle’ is around 20 cm across, and has a striking pattern with alternating black and white stripes."
They think it's possible it rolled down from higher in the crater, which is where Perseverance is going. So be on the lookout for more striped rocks.
My first nice thought about this is that it's gneiss, and I'll stop now.
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