Blazing a trail of discoveries at Meridiani Planum, NASA's Opportunity rover has come across another.
A volcanic rock, given the name Bounce, was found to have similarities to meteorites that fell to Earth.
Opportunity's Mini-tess and Moessbauer spectrometers has found the element pyroxene, a volcanic mineral, in the football-size rock.
The rock's composition is unlike any other rock or volcanic deposits already studied by Opportunity and Spirit.
NASA's Mars Odyssey may have given scientists a clue to its origin with an image of a crater where Bounce could have been ejected from upon impact.
The rock was named Bounce after Opportunity, still in its airbags, bounced on it while rolling to a stop.