“If it’s not coral, then what is it?” pondered the experts at NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
The peculiar object turned out to be a small, light-colored, weathered stone. It was discovered by the inside Gale Crater on the Red Planet. The stone remarkably resembles coral found in Earth’s oceans, as reported by Live Science.
In a black-and-white image taken with the Remote Micro Imager—a high-resolution telescopic camera mounted on the rover—the stone, about 2.5 cm wide, displays intricate branching structures.
Later, NASA stated that Curiosity “has discovered numerous such stones formed under the influence of ancient water and billions of years of wind-driven sandblasting.”
What Did the Rover Team Report?
According to the researchers’ statement, coral-like rocks on Mars began forming billions of years ago when the still had water. Like Earth’s water, the Martian variety was rich in dissolved minerals. It seeped through tiny cracks in the rocks, gradually depositing minerals and forming solid “veins” inside. These veins create the strange branching structures of the coral-like object seen in the image.
Among other examples of unusual stones found on Mars is “Paposso,” a 5 cm wide stone with a bizarre shape that Curiosity recently encountered. Additionally, there’s a tiny flower-shaped object that the rover photographed in Gale Crater back in 2022.
Mission Possible
Let’s remember that in 2012, the Curiosity rover landed on , touching down in Gale Crater. This is a meteorite crater located at the boundary between the southern highlands of the Red Planet and its northern plains. The rover’s mission, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory , is to scan the surface of the Red Planet and search for signs that it was once suitable for life.
So far, Curiosity has traveled about 35 kilometers across the 154 km wide crater. The rover’s journey is winding and slow, as it must stop to drill into rocks and collect samples.
The rover’s investigations have uncovered numerous pieces of evidence suggesting that Mars once had the potential for life. Among these are long carbon chains from rocks that are 3.7 billion years old and indications that a carbon cycle once existed on Mars.
Photo: pixabay.com, NASA