Cool Rocks On Mars Edition! Perseverance Saw This "Conquistador Helmet / High Hat / Volcano"...

Of course, no one seriously thinks "Horneflya" might be the remnants of any actual helmet -- from long ago "John Carter of Mars" [Edgar Rice Burroughs' sci-fi novel series] lore.

No, it is almost certainly a weathered (primarily by billions of years of wind), soft and porous rock. . . shaped by the timeless raindrops, that came long before the. . . words, as Norman MacLean might have it.

This is an imagination-firing bit of imagery from Perseverance's mast cam, to be certain, though. Here's the latest, from Space.com:

. . .NASA's Perseverance rover has stumbled across a curious, volcano-shaped rock on the surface of Mars that looks rather like a weathered battle helmet. . . .

Captured by the rover's Mastcam-Z instrument on Aug. 5, 2025, the rock displays a pointed peak and pitted nodular texture that evokes an image of armor forged centuries ago. On Earth, similar nodule textures can form through chemical weathering, mineral precipitation or even volcanic processes. . . .

"This hat-shaped rock is composed of spherules. 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," David Agle, a spokesperson for the Perseverance team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said. . . .

For now, the helmet rock remains a compelling snapshot of Martian history. Features like this help scientists piece together the Red Planet's environmental history, showing how wind, water and internal processes may have sculpted the landscape over billions of years. . . .

Also, as we've previously mentioned, no one should believe the 2024 Musk / Rogan fabrications / image manipulations, either. What a pair of yutzes. [See at left. That is not by any stretch, any ruined Martians' "fort" -- of a billion years past. Damn.]

Okay -- now you know. . . be excellent to one another. This is a wonderful time to be alive -- to see with our own eyes. . . the Red Planet's wonders. . . 45 million miles out into the night sky. . . as a "red hot coal, rising -- with a moan. . . ." Smile.

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