'Jelly doughnut' Martian rock mystery solved
India Today Online
Pasadena, California, February 15, 2014 | UPDATED 18:11 IST
The mystery of the "jelly doughnut" rock on Mars that appeared to
come out of nowhere has been solved, with the NASA saying on Friday that
a wheel of the rover Opportunity broke it off a larger rock and then
kicked it into the field of view.
READ: June 8, 2013 | NASA's rover finds hint of a life-friendly ancient Mars
This
composite image provided by NASA shows before and-after images taken by
the Opportunity rover on Mars of a patch of ground taken on December
26, 2013, left, and one of the same area on January 8, 2014, that shows a
rock shaped like a jelly doughnut. AP
Opportunity recently celebrated 10 years on Mars. Its twin Spirit stopped communicating in 2010. The
Internet was abuzz last month when the space agency released
side-by-side images of the same patch of ground. Only one image showed
the rock, which was white around the outside and dark red in the middle,
and less than 2 inches (5.08 centimeters) wide, AP reported.
Scientists
had suspected that one of Opportunity's wheels kicked the rock as it
drove. They received confirmation after analyzing recent images of the
original piece of rock.
