After six months of exploring "Lac de Charmes," a region of ancient rock beyond Jezero crater's western rim, NASA's Perseverance rover has stumbled upon a vast field of light-toned rocks peppering the Martian surface - because apparently Mars wasn't done being confusing yet.

Light-colored rocks are a strange sight on Mars, a planet thoroughly dominated by dark-colored basaltic rocks. So finding this many light-colored rocks in one place naturally piqued the Science Team's interest. What are they? How did they get here? Two questions, zero easy answers, as is tradition.

To answer the first question, Perseverance has been investigating the composition and textures of these rocks. Data so far indicates that many of them are igneous rocks called gabbro, which are dominated by minerals rich in iron and magnesium. Such rocks typically form by slow cooling and crystallization of magma deep in the crust - which is a fancy way of saying they had no business being on the surface at all.

So how did these deep fragments of Mars find their way to the surface? Excellent question. Perseverance has spent the last week trying to answer it by investigating a patch of possible bedrock poking out between the light-toned boulders and loose regolith.

Initial images suggest that the rock is made up of light- and dark-colored, angular fragments of rock, forming what geologists call a breccia. One possibility the team is investigating is that the light-toned boulders scattered across the hillside have eroded out of this breccia.

Breccias often form through violent processes involving the fracturing and transport of rock to produce their angular shapes. Layers of breccia observed outside Jezero have previously been attributed to asteroid impacts on early Mars. Perhaps similar impacts - or the Jezero impact itself? - could be responsible for digging up these light-colored blocks. Nothing says "geology field trip" like an ancient asteroid bombardment.

Only time (and of course, Perseverance) will tell.