NASA Solves Mystery of 'Jelly Doughnut' Martian Rock

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, confirmed that the jelly doughnut rock discovered on the Martian surface was just a rock rolled over by the Mars rover's wheel.

The space agency announced that the now-infamous Martian rock dubbed the Pinnacle Island is just a large rock broken and rolled over by Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's wheel at the beginning of this new year.

The Martian rock resembling a jelly doughnut triggered a huge online buzz when it was captured in an image that rover took on Jan 8. But it is now known that the 1.5 inches wide white rimmed, red-centered rock is the fragment of a larger rock broken by the unmanned rover's wheel.

"Once we moved Opportunity a short distance, after inspecting Pinnacle Island, we could see directly uphill an overturned rock that has the same unusual appearance," said Opportunity Deputy Principal Investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. "We drove over it. We can see the track. That's where Pinnacle Island came from."

Further examination of the jelly doughnut rock revealed the presence of high levels of elements mainly manganese and sulphur. The presence of these elements indicates that these water soluble materials were concentrated in the rock due to water.

"This may have happened just beneath the surface relatively recently," Arvidson said, "or it may have happened deeper below ground longer ago and then, by serendipity, erosion stripped away material above it and made it accessible to our wheels."

After successfully solving the mystery of the Martian rock, the team plans to transfer the rover south and uphill to examine the rock layers that remain exposed on the Martian slope. The rover now heads to it next destination that is informally called McClure Beverlin Escarpment.

"Our team working on Opportunity's continuing mission of exploration and discovery realizes how indebted we are to the work of people who made the early missions to Mars possible, and in particular to the heroics of Bill McClure and Jack Beverlin," said rover team member James Rice of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Ariz. "We felt this was really a fitting tribute to these brave men, especially with the 45th anniversary of their actions coming today."

The 384 pounds Mars Opportunity rover has been exploring the Martian world since its launch in 2004.