Roaming Mars is a lonely existence for NASA’s Perseverance, but the exploratory rover now has a traveling companion: a hitchhiking “pet rock” that got stuck in one of its wheels. Luckily, the Martian stone won’t impact the rover’s science mission and is only a minor inconvenience — like having a pebble stuck in your shoe.
Perseverance’s front-left wheel accidentally picked up the pet rock on Feb. 4, or Sol 341 — the 341st Martian day of the Martian year, according to a statement by NASA(opens in new tab). The rock has periodically photobombed images taken by the rover’s front-left Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam). Recent images show that the rock is still tumbling along with Perseverance 126 days (123 sols) after it first hitched a ride. (A sol, or Martian day, is just 37 minutes longer than an Earth day.)
The rock has been hitchhiking with Perseverance for just over a quarter of the rover’s mission on the Red Planet. When the rock first made a home for itself in Perseverance’s wheel, the rover was exploring the Máaz formation — a section of the Jezero crater that researchers suspect is made from ancient lava flows. Since then the rover has traveled 5.3 miles (8.5 kilometers) though the Octavia E. Butler landing site, where Perseverance first touched down on Mars in February 2021, and past the remains of the Kodiak delta, which once linked an ancient river and lake. The rover will shortly be gearing up for an ascent of one of the Jezero crater’s steep slopes, which may dislodge its stoney stowaway.
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