NASA’s Perseverance rover spots a bizarre DONUT-shaped rock on Mars

From an ‘alien door’ to a bone-like rock, weird and wonderful objects are often spotted on the Martian surface. 

But the latest image, which was snapped by NASA’s Perseverance, is arguably one of the strangest yet. 

The image shows a donut-shaped rock with a large hole in its centre. 

Baffled Twitter users have come up with a range of ideas for what the rock could be, including an alien toilet or ‘some kind of egg’. 

However, experts believe there may be a more reasonable explanation – it’s likely a meteorite that fell to Mars from the sky. 

Perseverance snapped the photo on June 23, and it was shared on Twitter by the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute). 

‘@NASAPersevere took a picture using the SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager on 23 June 2023 of a donut-shaped rock off in the distance,’ SETI wrote. 

While SETI suggests that the rock could be a ‘large meteorite alongside smaller pieces’, several Twitter users have other ideas. 

‘Just say it!!! there is life on Mars,’ one user wrote, while another added: ‘Alien toilet!’

Meanwhile, another user suggested: ‘It’s the ruins of a well from a technologically advanced pre-ice age civilization. They were on Mars too.’

SETI’s explanation is fairly plausible, with meteorites regularly spotted by rovers on Mars. 

For example, in January this year, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured an image of a meteorite nicknamed ‘Cacao’, while the space agency’s Opportunity rover snapped a photo of a meteorite dubbed ‘Block Island’ in 2009. 

The $2.5 billion (£1.95 billion) Mars 2020 spaceship launched on July 30 with the Perseverance rover (pictured) and Ingenuity helicopter inside – and landed successfully on February 18, 2021

NASA’s Mars 2020 mission was launched in 2020 to search for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.

The $2.5 billion (£1.95 billion) Mars 2020 spaceship launched on July 30 with the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter inside – and landed successfully on February 18, 2021. 

The main car-sized rover is exploring an ancient river delta within the Jezero Crater, which was once filled with a 1,600ft deep lake.

It is believed that the region hosted microbial life some 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago and the rover will examine soil samples to hunt for evidence of the life.