The Weirdest Images Ever Taken on Mars | Page 5 of 11

5/11

Gold on Mars

A shiny rock bearing a resemblance to a chunk of gold. — A shiny rock bearing a resemblance to a chunk of gold. Image: (NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL)

There’s gold in them thar Martian hills! Or least that’s what it looked like when Curiosity stumbled upon this shiny rock in November 2018. The rover was exploring an outcrop along Vera Rubin Ridge when it made the discovery. The object is likely a nickel-iron meteorite. Curiosity has seen this sort of thing before, including a large metal meteorite in 2015 and a small meteorite similar to this one in 2016.

Related Articles

Samsung AI Kitchen

Samsung Bespoke AI Refrigerator Wants to Take the Stress Out of the Kitchen

You’ll never have to wrack your brain trying to remember what you have in the fridge again.

Partners Partner Content With Samsung

Artist’s concept of NASA’s Moon Base.

One Day, Three Big Swings: NASA’s Bold New Plans for the Moon, Mars, and Earth Orbit

It's goodbye to Lunar Gateway and hello to Moon base.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie

Mars Solar Storm

A Solar Superstorm Blasted Mars—and Its Atmosphere Freaked Out

A new study investigated how the biggest solar storm in more than two decades impacted the Red Planet.

Space & Spaceflight Ellyn Lapointe

Asteroid Jhu Microbe Extremophile Top

Did Life Hitch a Ride to Earth? Scientists Smashed the Living Crap Out of Microbes to Find Out

The microbes "proved very hard to kill."

Space & Spaceflight Gayoung Lee

Tardigrada,in,space,3d,render

Scientists Finally Found Something Tardigrades Can’t Survive

Tardigrades are practically invincible on Earth, so scientists looked to outer space in search of their kryptonite.

Space & Spaceflight Gayoung Lee

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this panorama of boxwork formations — the low ridges seen here with hollows in between them — using its Mastcam on Sept. 26, 2025.

NASA’s Curiosity Finds Crunchy Nodules Where Ancient Martian Water Once Stood

Curiosity has been exploring a region filled with boxwork formations, which formed billions of years ago when water leaked through rock cracks.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie

Sign up for our newsletters