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NASA scientists are finally offering a plausible explanation of the origin of the mysterious rock shaped jelly doughnut that appeared near the rover Opportunity last month. 

According to scientists, the four centimeters wide, white-rimmed, red-centered rock, dubbed Pinnacle Island, was a piece of a larger rock that was broken and moved by Opportunity's wheel in the process. 

"Once we moved Opportunity a short distance, after inspecting Pinnacle Island, we could see directly uphill an overturned rock that has the same unusual appearance," said Opportunity deputy principal investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis on Friday, according to SMH.

"We drove over it. We can see the track. That's where Pinnacle Island came from."

Scientists accepted that the presence of the rock was unusual. 

"A close examination with Opportunity's spectrometer showed high levels of elements such as manganese and sulphur, suggesting these water-soluble ingredients were concentrated in the rock by the action of water," NASA said in a statement. 

"This may have happened just beneath the surface relatively recently," Arvidson added, "or it may have happened deeper below ground longer ago and then, by serendipity, erosion stripped away material above it and made it accessible to our wheels".

Opportunity is one of the two Mars Exploration Rovers sent by NASA. The other one was Spirit that stopped functioning with the Earth in 2010. However both of the rovers have managed to live long beyond their expected 90-day mission and have provided us useful information regarding water and environment on Mars.