Leopard Spots on Martian Rocks
What is creating these unusual spots?
Light-colored spots on
Martian rocks,
each surrounded by a dark border, were discovered last year by
NASA's
Perseverance Rover currently exploring
Mars.
Dubbed leopard spots because of their seemingly similarity to markings on famous
Earth-bound predators, these curious patterns are being studied with the possibility they were created by
ancient Martian life.
The pictured spots measure only
millimeters across and were discovered on a
larger rock named
Cheyava Falls.
The exciting but
unproven speculation
is that long ago,
microbes
generated energy with chemical reactions that
turned rock from red to white while leaving a dark biosignature ring,
like some
similarly appearing spots on
Earth rocks.
Although other non-biological explanations have not been ruled out,
speculation focusing on this potential biological origin is causing
much intrigue.