Martian Blueberries, It’s Not A Fruit

On the surface of Mars, one has to wonder whether this is living matter. There’s a whole field of these spherical, blueish pebbles, but scientists are still trying to figure out how they came to be so round. Hematite-rich spheres recovered by the rover, Opportunity, after landing in a small crater were called “blueberries” because of their spherical shape and the likelihood of being created by water below the surface.

In diameter, the “blueberries” are around 0.3 millimeters (1/8 inch). The iron oxide compounds known as haematites were discovered by the Opportunity rover’s tiny spectrometers. This happened while they analyzed the mineralogy of the area.