SPACE COWBOY

Bizarre ‘Alien Hat’ Found By Rover on the Surface of Mars

The unusual object bares a striking resemblance to a witch’s hat.

NASA’s Perseverance rover stumbled upon an unusual find during its latest sweep of Mars, as the space agency shared a photo of a curious rock found on the red planet’s surface which looks exactly like a wide-brimmed hat. The rock, which appears to have a pointed-peak and wide brim, much like a witches hat or an old helmet, was selected as NASA’s “photo of the week” after it was spotted by the rover during a trip through the Jezero Crater on August 5. “This rock’s target name is Horneflya and it’s distinctive less because of its hat shape (which looks to me to be generally consistent with the pyramid shape we often see in of wind-eroded float blocks on the surface of Mars) and more because it’s made almost entirely of spherules,” Perseverance spokesman David Angle told Space.com. Spherules, which are circular textures made through chemical weathering, mineral precipitation or volcanic processes, may offer a glimpse into Mars’ “wet history” as the Perseverance team seeks to find evidence of ancient microbial life on the red planet. “Conceivably, microbial life could have lived in Jezero during one or more of these wet times,” NASA said. “If so, signs of their remains might be found in lakebed or shoreline sediments.”