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While exploring a crater on Mars that could give scientists insight into life that once existed there, NASA said its Perseverance rover has made an unprecedented discovery. The rover, which landed on the Red Planet in 2021 specifically to explore the ancient Jezero crater, discovered a mysterious bright rock earlier this month that was the first of its kind seen on Martian soil.

Perseverance came across the rock while crossing the Neretva River Valley, a dried-up delta of a river that flowed into the crater billions of years ago, on its way to an area inside the rim where rocky outcrops are being probed for sediments that could shed light on the history of Mars, NASA said. The rover had changed course along its route to avoid rough terrain when, taking a shortcut through a dune field, it reached a hill that scientists named Mount Washburn.

The hill was covered in rocks, some of which NASA described as belonging to “a type never before seen on Mars.”

One small stone particularly intrigued the scientists working with Perseverance from Earth. Measuring approximately 18 inches in width and 14 inches in height, the mottled and visibly light rock was spotted among a field of darker boulders on the hill.

“The variety of textures and compositions at Mount Washburn was an exciting discovery for the team, as these rocks represent a geological bounty bag brought down from the rim of the crater and potentially beyond,” said Brad Garczynski of Western Washington University, who co-led the current mission. Perseverance, in a statement. “But among all these different rocks, there was one that really caught our attention.”

Garczynski and his team named the mystery rock Atoko Point, and further examination of the rock using the rover’s instruments suggests it is composed of the minerals pyroxene and feldspar. NASA said the size, shape and overall arrangement of the minerals at Atoko Point, as well as the potential composition of the rock at a chemical level, put the rock “in a league of its own” in terms of Martian sediments, at least among those already known to scientists.

Pyroxene and feldspar are minerals also found in the Earth’s crust and on the Moon, according to the US Geological Survey and NASA. The space agency said some scientists on the Perseverance team speculated that the minerals found at Atoko Point may have come from magma that originated on the Martian surface and became exposed on the Jezero crater rim over time due to erosion.

Other members of the team speculated that the stone may have appeared out of place on Washburn Hill, if indeed it was produced in another part of the planet and moved with the ancient river channel to its current location on the rim. But NASA said all Perseverance scientists believe more rocks of similar composition must exist elsewhere on Mars.

The rover discovered Atoko Point in the midst of its fourth Mars “campaign,” which focused on finding evidence of carbonate and olivine deposits inside the Jezero crater. Both groups of minerals exist on Earth, with carbonate typically found in deposits near lakeshores and olivine typically associated with volcanic activity.

They are of interest to scientists studying Mars — both of whom have already been observed by Perseverance — because of their ability to encapsulate remnants of the past over long periods of time. Identifying carbonate in a Martian crater could theoretically give scientists access to traces of ancient life on the planet preserved in the mineral itself, and olivine helps them understand when in history the Martian climate may have been conducive to organic compounds, such as flowing water and , potentially, life.

Scientists say learning about the composition of Mars and what it may have been like a long time ago can help them understand whether the planet’s current landscape could ever be habitable for humans. It may also offer important clues about the origin and evolution of life on Earth.