NASA Rover Finds Glowing, Ruby-Like Crystals on Mars for the First Time

Over the past five years, a six-wheeled robot has been exploring the Martian terrain and capturing unusual features like a leopard-spotted rock, a tangle of strings, and textured rock formations that look like popcorn. Now, NASA’s Perseverance rover has found tiny gemstones that resemble rubies. An international group of researchers spotted evidence of precious stones hidden inside Martian pebbles. The gem grains are made of corundum, a crystalline material that’s known as ruby or sapphire. The findings were presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas earlier this month and suggest that Mars could be hiding other precious minerals across its desert-like terrain. Perseverance recently explored the rim of Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer) impact crater on Mars that may once have been filled with a deep lake. Near the crater’s stony rim, the rover found tiny, pale-colored pebbles that looked out of place, meaning they may have been transported there by impacts or geological activity. Using the rover’s SuperCam, scientists blasted the rocks with lasers to reveal their chemical composition. Perseverance’s analysis of the rocks revealed something unexpecte