NASA's Perseverance Rover Detects Rubies, Sapphires on the Surface of Mars

NASA scientists have confirmed the presence of rubies and sapphires on the surface of Mars.

The finding comes courtesy of NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been exploring the rocky terrain of Jezero Crater in search of clues about the planet’s past. Using its advanced SuperCam instrument, the rover detected tiny grains of corundum (the mineral that forms ruby and sapphire) embedded in Martian pebbles. Each grain measured less than 0.2 millimeters across.

Though far too small to fashion into jewelry, these microscopic crystals lit up under the rover’s laser, revealing their identity through a distinctive glow.

Presented by Ann Ollila at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas on March 16, the results surprised researchers. On Earth, corundum typically forms deep within the planet under intense heat and pressure linked to tectonic activity. Mars, however, lacks the kind of plate tectonics that drives those processes.

So how did ruby- and sapphire-forming minerals end up on the Red Planet?

Scientists believe the answer lies in impacts — specifically, the powerful collisions between Mars and meteorites over billions of years. When these high-speed impacts occur, they generate extraordinary heat and pressure in an instant, effectively mimicking (and sometimes exceeding) the conditions needed to form corundum. In this scenario, aluminum-rich, silica-poor materials are rapidly transformed into tiny crystals during what scientists call “impact metamorphism.”

The small size of the Martian corundum grains actually supports this theory. On Earth and the Moon, impact-related corundum tends to form as minuscule particles rather than large, gem-quality crystals. The pebbles analyzed by Perseverance — nicknamed “Hampden River,” “Coffee Cove,” and “Smiths Harbour” — appear to fit that pattern perfectly.

For jewelry enthusiasts, the discovery adds a fascinating new chapter to the story of gemstones. It suggests that the processes capable of creating ruby and sapphire aren’t limited to Earth — they can occur anywhere in the universe where the right ingredients and extreme conditions collide.

And corundum isn’t the only gem-like material found on Mars. Previous expeditions into the Jezero Crater have uncovered evidence of opal, a hydrated silica mineral that typically forms in the presence of water. That discovery hinted at Mars’ wetter past, while the new corundum findings point to a history shaped by intense, high-energy impacts.

Credit: NASA’s Perseverance rover image (cropped) by semeion.photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.