A Nasa rover on Mars has left scientist baffled after stumbling across a mysterious object showing striking resemblance to a damaged battle helmet.
The Perseverance rover captured high-resolution images of the peculiar object on its Mastercam-Z instrument.
The discovery boasts a pointed peak and a pitted nodular texture, similar to historical pieces of armour which were forged back on Earth.
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The discovery boasts a pointed peak and pitted nodular texture, similar to pieces of armour that were forged in the distant past
|NASA
However, similar nodular textures can be found on rocks on Earth, forming through volcanic processes, mineral precipitation and chemical weathering.
A spokesman for the Perseverance team at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory told Space.com: "This hat-shaped rock is composed of spherules.
"This rock's target name is Horneflya and it's distinctive less because of its hat shape - which looks to me to be generally consistent with the pyramid shape we often see in of wind-eroded float blocks on the surface of Mars - and more because it's made almost entirely of spherules."
It is the second time in recent months that the Perseverance rover has uncovered a rock of this nature.
It is the second time in recent months that the Perseverance rover has uncovered a rock of this nature
|NASA
Scientists believe that in many rocks found on Mars, the spherules form when groundwater passes through pores in sedimentary rocks.
The Perseverance team is now hoping their rover will unlock the answer to this Martian mystery - along with many other questions surrounding the Red Planet.
The Mastcam-Z instrument, which was used to capture the helmet-shaped object, has a pair of zoom-capable cameras attached to Perseverance's mast.
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Scientists believe that in many rocks found on Mars, the spherules form when groundwater passed through pores in sedimentary rocks
| NASAThis enables scientists to take take high-resolution images and highlight distinct features from a distance.
The rover has uncovered a variety of bizarrely-shaped rocks, including meteorites resembling doughnuts and stones shaped similarly to avocados.
These sort of photos are examples of a phenomenon referred to as pareidolia.
The pareidolia phenomenon occurs when the brain is driven to find familiar patterns and shapes, misrepresenting random images as something recognisable - such as seeing faces in clouds.
The discovery came just weeks after Nasa captured an image of a rock closely resembling a chunk of coral, estimated to be billions of years old.
The object measured just one inch wide, while its unique shape is due to undergoing sandblasting on the planet for billions of years.
The photograph was taken by the Curiosity Rover, which has been on the Red Planet for almost 13 years.