NASA Reveal The True Mystery Behind Mars “Pinnacle Island”

You may remember that over the last week or so there has been a lot of debate about an object on the Martian surface, a rock like object that was nicknamed “Pinnacle Island” by scientists at NASA. When the Mars rover Opportunity first inspected the area there was nothing there, twelve days later this thing is sat right in front of them and speculation was fierce over what it could be, with NASA saying it’s either a very close call with a meteor or something kicked up by the rovers tracks, to one astrobiologist actually suing NASA for not investigating it further, as he believed it could be a mushroom like fungus.

Turns out NASA were right on the money with their second guess, after they had finished investigating the rock they discovered they had driven over a larger rock of the same composition and that the “Pinnacle Island” rock was just a broken off part. Not to be disappointed by the strange rock ” “Opportunity’s instruments have revealed that [Pinnacle Island] has high levels of sulfur and manganese, water soluble ingredients that may have been concentrated in the rock thanks to the action of water.” said NASA while speaking to LA Times.

There are a lot of huge discoveries just waiting to be found on Mars and while this wasn’t one of them, you never know what rock they might turn over next.

Thank you Arstechnica for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Arstechnica.