The internet is obsessed with Mars rover Perseverance’s pet rock

Everyone needs a friend, and the internet is developing an obsession with a Mars rover and the 'pet rock' it's been spending the past few months with.

It can get pretty lonely out on the surface of a desert planet in the outer space, and the Perseverance has teamed up with an unlikely companion.

Nasa’s Mars rover was first seen to have acquired a rock inside its back wheel back in February and, pretty amazingly, it’s still there.

Nasa has now stated that the rock has now broken a record for hitchhiking on the craft.

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Perseverance likely picked up the large stone in Jezero Crater, which is a 45kilometer-wide crater thought one to have been filled with water.

It’s been exploring the site since February 2021, selecting rocks and samples to bring back to Earth to be studied. One of them, it looks like, has grown particularly attached to it.

The pet rock has been carted around the craterNASA

The rock in question has been travelling on the craft for four months by this point, which is the longest to have ever stayed on a Mars rover.

It’s travelled a fair distance in that time, too.

It’s thought to have been inadvertently picked up on the floor of the crater and it’s now more than 8.5 kilometers away in the western Jezero delta.

Who knows how far the pluck rock will go? Wherever it gets to, the social media users who have become obsessed with the story over recent days will be following it.

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