Nasa’s Curiosity rover has stumbled upon a strange metallic rock on Mars that may allow scientists to gain insights on the Red Planet’s ancient past.

The rock, dubbed Cacao, measures about a foot across and appears to be an iron-nickel meteorite, according to the American space agency.

It was discovered in the “sulfate-bearing unit” – a region on Mars’ Mount Sharp, the agency noted in a blog post on the discovery.

Nasa shared a high-resolution image of the rock that was stitched together from about 20 different individual photos taken by the rover.

One of the images is a close-up of Cacao as viewed through Curiosity’s ChemC